Dark Claw
by Chaosmob
Summary: Batman has an accident and is merged with Wolverine. He looks and acts like Batman at first, but slowly Wolverines personality starts to show it self.
1. The Accident

A/N Don't own any of these characters, so don't sue me.

Many thanks to DaisyJane for betaing this story. I think she is Wonder Woman in disguise.

Shameless shout outs. Hepburn, hope your enjoying the weather. Lady Isis Congrates on finishing school, finally :P. KittyBatman you have one sick imagination, but I still love your stories. Icha can't wait for the next installment! DaisyJane, I'm glad to see your writing up a storm!!! If I missed anyone else sorry.

Enjoy all!

**Dark Claw**

Chapter 1: The Accident.

Batman was sitting at his computer in the batcave. He was looking over video footage of a break in at one of Wayne Tech's warehouses that had occurred earlier this evening. The thieves were heavily armed. They'd taken a portable zero point generator. It was a first generation testing model and it would cost Wayne Tech millions to build another one.

It was a very sloppy break in. The group looked like little more than stupid muscle men who could barely follow orders most of the time. The leader was dressed in all black and wore a mask. On closer inspection he noticed that the leader was female. She seemed intelligent and was barking out orders to the others, who were totally unprofessional. They'd been lucky because he'd been tied up with Two Face across town. The Gotham Police Department had also been slow because of a bomb threat at a factory on the north side of the city.

His comm. buzzed as Robin contacted him. "Batman, I've found your thieves. They're holding up in a abandoned hotel on Clark St. and Wayne Ave."

Batman punched up the map on his computer as well as pulling up the blue prints of the hotel."I will be there in ten minutes, keep an eye on them." he said as he downloaded the blue prints to his PDA. He started his way to the Batmobile. He pushed a button on his belt. "Batman to Batgirl." He called into his cowl's built-in comm. A few seconds later she replied.

"Batgirl here." she replied in a chipper voice.

"I need you to go to Clark St. and Wayne Ave. as soon as possible. Batman out." he quickly said and closed the connection before she could reply. The Batmobile canopy opened up as he hopped in. A deafening roar from the engine caused some of the bats to fly around the cave. He was gone before they found a new perch.

He parked the Batmobile in an alleyway a few blocks away from the hideout. He made his way towards Robin. Robin had a pair of binoculars covering his eyes as he stared at the building. "They haven't moved at all." Robin told him without looking away from the building.

He pulled out his own binoculars and looked over the building. It was three stories tall and very run down. The neon sign was completely smashed. Most of the lower level windows and doors were boarded up. The top level windows all had been either smashed or removed. He spotted a lone sentry on the roof.

"We hit the roof. Take out the guard and make our way down," he said to Robin as he placed his binoculars back in their pouch. Robin mirrored his actions and nodded his head in agreement. The two silently made there way to an joining roof top. The guard looked bored and was not really paying attention. Robin knocked him out before he even knew what was happening.

Batman and Robin entered through the roof entrance. The stairs were littered with garbage. They avoided the mess without making any noise. They stopped at a closed door that had light coming out from between the cracks. Batman held up a finger to his lips.

They listened to the conversation going on behind the door.

"I still don't understand how this will make us rich, lady." a gruff voice said.

"It's a multi-dimensional portal generator, you can use it to teleport to another dimension and steal from it. No one will be able to pin the crime on you because your not going to stay in that dimension." a clever female voice said.

"HUH?" was all the male voice replied.

"Watch and I will show you." she said said slowly as if speaking to a five year old. Batman motioned for Robin to be ready. A low humming sound started to slowly pitch higher. Batman knew she was powering up the device. They would have to move quickly before it was fully powered.

He stepped back and kicked the door off its hinges. The small group of men and the woman turned to see Batman move towards them. Robin came flipping out from behind him. Robin focused on the four men in the room. Batman moved quickly towards the lady in black.

He grabbed the petite brunette and her brown eyes enlarged to comical proportions. She was so scared that she pressed the button on the remote in her hands without realizing what she had done. The noise from a small round object started to ramped up quickly.

Batman turned his attention from her to the device. It was vibrating and hopping around on the wooden crate. He heard the woman scream, "NO!" as she struggled in his hold. In that instant the device stopped moving for a millisecond. Then exploded. Metal fragments flew everywhere. The blast knocked both Batman and the lady in black back several meters. As he laid there trying to breathe he saw the room start to change rapidly.

He looked up and saw a blue furry man beast standing above him looking concerned. The image again rapidly changed from the room with the man and back to the hotel room. Finally, he passed out from not being able to breathe.

Robin turned and looked as he heard the explosion. He watched as Batman hit the ground but what shocked him the most was the rapid flashing of another body overlaid onto his. All Robin could see was very quick glimpses of a man in a yellow suit bent over Batman at first and then lying in his place before Batman reappeared. The whole scene happened in a matter of seconds before it stopped.

The men not knocked out ran from the room. Robin slowly walked over to Batman's prone body. He looked over at the lady and quickly turned away from her. She was clearly dead as her bloody body had taken most of the shrapnel and her head was practically decapitated. He looked back at Batman. He had a very large chunk of metal sticking out of his chest but it was moving up and down very slowly. Robin was relieved to see him still breathing.

Robin knelt next to Batman."Batman?" was all he could manage to say as worry constricted his throat. He waited for a reply.

Bruce heard the voice of Robin and managed to wheeze out. "Help me up." Robin rose to his feet and tried to pull Batman up. But he couldn't move him at all. It was like he weighed a thousand kilograms. Bruce felt the pain in his chest and looked down and saw the metal chunk sticking out of his chest.

For some unknown reason he pulled it out. He was shocked to see that his chest didn't start to gush out blood. The shard of metal had blood all over it. He felt better now and sat up under his own power. Robin just stood there watching him and he leaned closer to Bruce to examine the wound on his chest. His eyes grew large as he looked at it closely. There wasn't a even a scratch on his skin.

"Batman, lets get out of here." Robin finally spoke. Batman nodded his head in agreement. He was feeling very strange and needed to get back to the safety of the batcave to regroup. He couldn't focus at all. He stood on shaky legs and followed Robin out of the hotel.

Batgirl landed next to them and saw the concern on Robin's face. "What happened in there?" she asked them.

"I don't know, but we need to get Batman back to the Batcave. He was injured." Robin replied harshly. This surprised her as Robin never talked to her like this. He was usually more cheerful. She nodded her head as she surmised that something very wrong had happened.

By the time they got back to the Batcave, Batman was almost back to normal. But Tim and Barbara were not convinced. Tim told her everything that had happened on the way to the cave."Bruce, I want you to get checked out by Alfred." Tim told him. Bruce gave him a hard look. Barbara spoke up.

"Bruce, for once listen to Tim." Barbara gave him a hard stare.

Bruce shook his head and sighed in exasperation."Fine." He walked over to the examination table and got on it. Alfred came down after Tim ran and got him. Alfred was a little upset at hearing what Tim had told him but had on his normal stoic face when they got to Bruce.

"Lay back Master Bruce." Alfred asked him. Bruce sighed and did as he was told. Alfred looked at the battered suit with blood on it. It was to damaged to repair. He took out a pair of electrically powered scissors and cut down the middle of the bat symbol. He peeled back the kevlar and was shocked beyond belief. There was blood on his skin but no wounds of any kind.

"Master Tim you said he pulled out a large chunk of shrapnel from his chest?" Alfred asked him. Tim walked over to Alfred and stood next to him.

"Yes it was about eight to ten centimeters in length and there was about four to six centimeters embedded in his chest. Why?" he asked Alfred.

"There is only a minor amount of blood on the skin and no wound not even a scratch." Alfred said in amazement. Bruce lifted his head and looked down at his chest. He remembered pulling out the large chunk of metal. Normally he would have left it there so Alfred could remove it as it was best not to remove the object because it helped keep the bleeding down to a minimum and more damage could occur during the removal. What the hell was happening to him.

Alfred moved the portable x-ray machine over towards Bruce. He took a picture of his chest where the shrapnel had been. Alfred came over with the processed image. They looked at it in shock. Barbara and Tim saw the look on both of their faces.

"What is wrong?" Barbara asked. Tim stood next to her awaiting for an answer.

"The bones in my chest... they're composed of metal?!" Bruce said out loud as he looked at Alfred to confirm it. Alfred slowly nodded his head. Alfred took several more x-rays of different parts of his body. Each and everyone showed Bruce's bones were now metal.

Bruce quickly cut a piece of the batsuit that was covered in blood. He ran this sample through a DNA analyzer. It came back showing a meta gene to now be present in the sequence as well as other DNA foreign to Bruce's. He cross referenced it to other known meta genes and DNA in his database. It came back with a negative reference found. Did he have a new gene not cataloged? He thought about what had happened. Somehow the devise must've graphed foreign meta human DNA onto his own. He would have to return to the scene.

But he had a very odd craving at the moment.

"Alfred.. do we still have that box of cigars in the study?" he asked him. Alfred nodded his head.

"They haven't been opened yet, Sir."

"Could you bring it down, now?" Alfred turned and left to retrieve them. When Alfred returned Bruce opened the wooden box of imported cigars. Alfred watched as Bruce took one out. Taking a utility knife from his work bench he cut the end off. He took a torch and lit the cigar. Alfred watched as he inhaled the smoke and seem to savor the taste.

Alfred said nothing as Bruce went over and got another batsuit. He returned with the cigar still in his mouth and wearing the new batsuit. Batman walked over to and got into the batmobile. He left a very confused and worried Alfred as he drove away.

Batman reentered the abandon hotel and collected every piece that could possibly belong to the device. He returned to the cave and set it all on an empty table. Bruce removed his cowl and gloves. He started to look at the shards of metal. The electronics looked to be completely burnt out. It would take time and effort to piece it back together. He pulled out another cigar and lit it. It helped him to relax, which was odd he thought as he never cared for them before the accident.

He returned his attention to the table and picked up a very sharp piece of metal. He bent to examined it more closely when he cut his finger. It caused a surge of anger in him, but it vanished when he saw the wound heal almost immediately.

Bruce went over to his work bench and picked up the utility knife he used to cut the cigars. He placed it on the his palm and with a quick jerk he sliced his palm open. He watched in amazement as his hand instantly healed. _I guess that the meta gene causes accelerated healing,_ he thought to himself.

Just at that moment, a name came screaming into his thoughts. Bruce closed his eyes to control the painful headache. The pain dissipated just as fast as it came. He opened his eyes and whispered the name.

"Logan..."


	2. Jasmine in the Air

A/N Once again I don't own these characters.

MANY Many many thanks to DaisyJane for betaing this story. And thanks to Lady Isis for her input also. Those two are simply the best. Okay enough sucking up. Lol ;)

Enjoy All.

**Dark Claw**

Chapter 2: Jasmine in the Air.

Bruce found himself in a glass tank filled with clear liquid. He looked down at his body and found wires and several sets of probes around him. He looked up at a balcony and saw several men dressed in military uniforms. One of the men raised his hand and motioned to someone.

Bruce watched as the long needle probes sank into his skin. He felt them enter his bones. He grunted in pain but he had felt worst. Suddenly the liquid started to bubble and the pain increased. The pain got so bad that he screamed but the sound was muffled by the liquid. He felt like his entire body was on fire.

The pain continued to increase, he had never felt anything like this kind of pain before. It was like he was being burnt, stretched and squeezed. Every nerve fiber in his entire body was firing off. His heart raced like never before and he couldn't control anything. All he could do was ride wave after wave of pain and scream. Soon he couldn't even scream anymore as the air from his lungs ran out and he couldn't seem to breathe.

Bruce jerked awake trembling with sweat pouring off him. He'd never felt anything like that before. His normal nightmares almost paled in comparison. He closed his eyes, using the mental exercises he'd learned a long time ago to relax his mind and body. It took a few minutes before he reopened his eyes. He rose slowly off the bed and went to the bathroom where he got a drink of water and gulped it down. Once he finished drinking the water he rinsed his face.

He returned to bed and laid down but he couldn't get back to sleep. The dream was so real like it was something he had truly experienced and not just dreamed. After ten minutes of tossing and turning, he gave up on getting more sleep. He got up and dressed casually. Since it was nine in the morning, he figured Alfred would be up. Bruce walked into the kitchen and saw Alfred sitting at the table. He was having his morning tea.

"Morning Alfred," he said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, Master Bruce. You're up earlier than I expected given that you don't need to be at the office until noon." Alfred said as Bruce took a seat across from him. Alfred noticed that Bruce looked agitated.

"Is something bothering you, Master Bruce?" he asked him. Bruce sat up a little straighter.

"Yes Alfred, I just had a nightmare like no other. In the dream I was being tortured, wait no I'm feeling that maybe what was done wasn't meant to be torture. The pain I felt was excruciating, like nothing I've felt before." he frowned. It didn't make sense to him. Was it an experiment he dreamed about? It sort of made sense to him now. In the dream he felt like it was his decision to go through that pain, that he had allowed the experiment to happen.

"Now that I think about it, I wasn't being tortured... I volunteered for the experiment that caused me so much pain." he said as he looked into Alfred's eyes with a haunted and confused expression.

"The dream sounds very disturbing, Master Bruce, and I believe it is related to what happened to you yesterday. You are dealing with some strange physiological changes," he said.

Bruce simply nodded his head realizing that Alfred was probably right. He was having a harder time concentrating as if the changes caused by the device were affecting his mind as well. Bruce was bothered by the whole situation and he made the decision to go to J'onn for help. The Martian knew how to be discreet and keep things to himself.

"I think I might go up to the Watchtower today," he told Alfred. Alfred nodded his head and got up.

"That is probably a wise decision and I will make sure to contract Mr. Fox and tell him you will not be coming into work." Alfred said.

Bruce just absently nodded his head in agreement as his mind was already planning what he would say to J'onn. He needed answers and maybe J'onn would be able run some test that would tell him more. He retreated to the batcave to suit up. Twenty minutes later he was in the batwing and flying into space towards the orbiting space station known as the Watchtower. Once he docked he went in search of J'onn but a scent in the air caught his attention. He hadn't noticed until now, but he seemed able to pick up several scent trails. He shook his head in confusion. This experience was very odd to him but he started to follow the scent trail that caused his heart rate to increase.

He felt aroused on an almost primitive level. He felt compelled to track it. Batman followed the trail throughout the Watchtower until he found that its source in the training room. The wonderful jasmine scent drew him in and he found himself overriding the locks on the door.

When the doors opened he saw Diana sparing against a host of robots and his heart rate increased at the sight and scent of her fighting. She hadn't noticed him as she was completely focused on destroying the robots. He stealthily moved into the room and hid in the shadows as the doors silently closed. He watched with great intensity as she fought with the robots. His nose was flared as he inhaled her heavenly jasmine scent. The sweat glistened off her skin and he unconsciously licked his lips. He had never felt this level of primitive arousal. He enjoyed watching her fluent movements as she defended against then attacked the robots.

Finally she smashed the last robot's head and stopped fighting to catch her breath. He watched as she wiped the sweat off her brow and almost growled at the sight. He saw her stiffen as she finally sensed his presence in the room. She turned and looked directly at him.

"Can I help you Batman?" she asked him in a cool voice. Without waiting for a reply she walked over to retrieve a towel and a bottle of water. He continued to watch her, transfixed by her movements. Her hips moved from side to side as she showed her back to him. Arousal hit him hard in the gut and his hands tightened into fists. She picked up the towel and wiped her face then wrapped it around her shoulders before taking a long drink from the bottle of water. He was completely focused on her lips as the water flowed into her mouth.

Annoyed that he hadn't spoken yet she turned gave him a hard look. He stepped out from the shadows and moved toward at her. Diana placed a hand on her hip.

"I asked you a question," she said in an imperious tone. She looked every inch the regal princess and that caused the blood to pound in his head. A predatory smile appeared on his face.

"Care too spar, Princess?" he asked her in his deep baritone voice.

Diana cocked an eyebrow. Batman never had asked her before to spar. _What was he up to,_ she wondered. She knew he had no meta powers and she could crush him like a bug.

"I wouldn't want to hurt you Batman." she said teasingly trying to keep her tone light so as not to offend him.

Batman smirked at her, "I was about to say the same, are you afraid I might beat you?" he challenged back.

Diana narrowed her eyes at him. Who did this puny man think he was to be challenging the princess of the Amazons. She would have to teach him a lesson. She gripped the towel around her shoulders and ripped it away from her neck. She stepped closer to him and got into her fighting stance.

Batman removed his cape. This puzzled Diana as she had observed that he always used his cape to hide his movements. Batman then got into his fighting stance. The two eyed each other for a few moments. Then they slowly started to circle each other.

Batman lunged at her. His left fist went to strike her head. Diana's head pulled back away from the blow. Batman at the same time kicked her in the thigh. The strike stung her. This raised her adrenaline level. Her jaw tightened as she avoided the next attack with his right fist.

Diana jumped at him. Batman bent backwards as she sailed just centimeters over his body. At the last second he punched her midsection. Diana exhaled from the blow and hit the floor. She quickly rolled to her feet. He had gotten two hits on her so far and that annoyed her a great deal.

She charged at him and faked a kick to his leg. Batman shifted his body to block the attack. Diana shot out her right fist and hit him on the jaw. The blow knocked him back. Diana smiled as she had finally hit him but the hit had surprisingly hurt her hand. She shook off the pain as he was ready to attack again.

She didn't allow him a moments rest, as she pushed her attack forward. He blocked her strikes as he was slowly moved back. He allowed her to advance until he saw an opening. He kicked her ribs as she extended her left arm to punch him.

Diana bent over for a moment. The blow was extremely hard. It actually knocked the wind out of her. Batman then karate chopped her on the neck. Driving her to the ground, he then pounced on her. With a few quick rabbit punches to the face Diana was stunned. Batman raised his fist above his head and drove it down to her face.

The blow broke her nose. Diana's eyes enlarged with anger. With all her strength she rocketed Batman off of her with her hips. He flew head first into the wall. The impact dented the metal wall. Diana growled as she snapped her nose in place and wiped the blood from her face. She flipped up onto her feet. Her Amazon blood was boiling. He was proving a worthy opponent and she was now enjoying the battle as she hadn't been this challenged since leaving Themyscira. Though she had never felt this much excitement when fighting her sisters.

She sized him up with a fiery blue stare. He was standing there with a smirk on his face. He moved his head around in a circle and loud cracking sounds could be heard. The two warriors yelled as they charged towards each other. They contacted with great force as both struck out with their fists at the same time and hit each other in the face as they ran towards one another. Diana's strength won out and sent him flying back against the wall. Diana's cheek hurt like Tartarus from the impact. It felt like she had been hit by a sledge hammer.

Diana's anger evaporated once she noticed Batman's body embedded in the metal structure of the wall. She raced over to see if she had killed him.

"Batman! Are you all right?" she asked in fear. Suddenly he popped out from the metal and launched himself at her. Diana was too amazed to even defend herself. The two fell to the ground. His breathing was fast and deep as he stared down at her. His nose flared as he inhaled her scent. He lowered his face closer to hers.

"I'm fine Diana." he horsely whispered to her. She looked up and noticed him licking his lips. Suddenly he was kissing her. Diana's eyes widened in shock as she had never been kissed by a man and had never experienced sexual passion before. She felt heat shoot through her body and she shoved him off of her. She was confused by his behavior and her reaction to it.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded as she rose to her feet. She watched as he slowly got up. He stood several feet away from her and smiled at her in a way that made Diana flush with excitement.

"Didn't you like it princess, having a man touching you, kissing you?" he cockily asked her. Diana's eyes turned to slits of anger.

"NO man touches an Amazon without permission!" she growled.

Batman took a step closer. "But this man did." he cockily stated.

Diana fist came at him again but he blocked the blow and moved in close to her. Face to face they stared at each other and Diana didn't know what to do. The man was infuriating her, but a part of her found his actions to be exciting. He quickly kissed her again. This time Diana aggressively kissed him back. She felt her body heat up as it pressed against his and fire pool in her loins. The biting kisses quickly became a deep passionate merging of their mouths. He pulled his lips from hers and they both gasped for breath. He slowly started to kiss down to her neck as Diana moaned in enjoyment. Her moans excited Batman and he bit the tendon between neck and shoulder. Diana growled as pleasure shot through her body. But this was too much for her given her lack of experience and she pushed him away.

She tried to control her breathing as her body tingled. They looked at each other. She felt an attraction to him more powerful then she knew how to to handle. Then a thought entered her mind. Why wasn't Batman injured? She knew she'd hit him hard as she was so provoked that she wasn't controlling her strength. She should have killed him when he hit the wall. Yet he was standing there like nothing had happened to him.

"Batman...Why aren't you hurt? I hit you hard enough to kill an ordinary human." she questioned him. This caused a chain reaction to his facial features. The smile was gone and his posture changed. He no longer looked cocky but confused as he took a few steps back. Diana watched the change in him and took a step towards him. Her face showed compassion and worry.

"I had an accident last night." he said so softly she could barely hear him. He turned and retrieved his cape. Diana stood watching him reattach it.

"Tell me about it." Diana said to him in a gentle voice. Batman looked at her as he contemplated telling her. He had for some reason trusted her since meeting her less then a year ago. Wasn't sure if he wanted to trust her with this knowledge.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone Diana." he told her. Diana nodded her head.

"The accident caused some kind of rapid healing gene and other unknown DNA to be merged into mine. I'm still trying to piece all the facts together. I came up here to talk to J'onn about it." he sighed. He seemed to have a heightened sense of smell now as well. He'd smelt her as soon as he'd entered the Watchtower and her smell was still stirring his senses as he felt an almost overwhelming urge to mate with her. He painfully repressed the desire as he looked away.

Diana saw him struggle with all he was telling her and he seemed almost confused by everything. Batman was normally so controlled and he seemed to have the answers to all the problems that the League faced. But this puzzle was a little too large even for him she thought and she sensed that there was more than what he hadn't told her so far.

"There is more isn't there?" she asked. During there impromptu sparing match his blows seemed to be harder then a normal human. Batman's lips tightened at her keen sense of observation.

"My skeleton has been changed to metal." he whispered. Diana's eyes enlarged.

"Tell me exactly what happened during this accident?" She demanded. He sighed and explained everything to her. Diana listened intently. Once he was done they both stood there quietly as both where lost in their thoughts. Then Diana spoke first.

"You have to tell the rest of the league about this accident Batman, they might be able to help." She saw this jaw tighten up. He shook his head no.

"This is my problem, I will figure it out." he said harshly. He then turned and started walking towards the doorway. He stopped at it. "Remember Diana...you promised not to tell anyone about this." He exited the room.

Diana stood there silently. Should I tell them? Batman is always helping them, why can't they help him for once. She exhaled deeply. She had promised not to tell and she always kept her word. She smiled as she realized that she didn't promise not to help him herself. She touched her lips and inhaled deeply. She could smell his scent on her and taste him on her lips. She felt a rush of feral desire. The experience was new but she liked it. Diana picked up her towel and started to leave the room with an almost predatory smile on her face. _Man's world sure wasn't what she had expected_ she thought as she left the room.


	3. Claws

A/N Don't own the characters so don't sue me.

Many Many Many thanks to DaisyJane, I swear she is psychic. That or my stories don't have that much mystery to them. And a thanks to Lady Isis for listening to me drone on about how great I am. Lol jk ;)

Enjoy all.

**Dark Claw**

Chapter 3: Claws

Batman flew back to the batcave without seeing J'onn as his thoughts were what he had done with Diana. He had only known her, and the other new members of the League for less then a year. Sure he had been attracted to her, she was beautiful for Christ's sake, but he had never thought of crossing the line and making sexual advances on her. Still, just the thought of her lips had him seriously contemplating turning the batwing around. Did the accident change his mental processes? He had never acted that way before. He sighed as he parked the batwing in the cave.

He made his way over to his computer and the cigar box on the console. He grabbed one and lit it up. Exhaling the smoke, he relaxed somewhat. He sat down on his large throne sized chair. His computer started to beep. The screen was flashing the black bat symbol but the background was red, meaning there was an emergency.

He pressed a few keys on his keyboard. The Scarecrow was on the loose. He had a theater full of people that he was holding hostage. Batman threw his cigar down one of the bottomless cliffs in the cave and ran towards the batmobile.

When he got there the theater was surrounded by the police. He shot off his grappling hook and landed next to commissioner Gordon Gordon who turned and faced him.

"Crane said he wants ten million dollars or he is going to release a new variant of his fear toxin on all the people being held in the theater." Gordon told Batman.

"Any thugs with him?" he asked. Gordon looked at the building.

"We don't know the exact number, but we think its only a few." When the commissioner turned his attention back to Batman, he was gone. Gordon rolled his eyes. _Damn Bat!_ he thought.

Batman entered the building through the sewer system. It sickened him because of his now heightened sense of smell. He shook off the feeling of throwing up and made his way up from the basement. He saw one guard watching the front doorway. Batman stealthily moved towards him. With a quick punch to the temple the man was unconscious. He dragged him off to a corner and handcuffed him.

It took him a few minutes to find and dispatch all the thugs. Jonathan Crane was on the stage holding a canister. The people in the audience sat there quietly and all looked scared out of their minds. This was giving Crane the rush he wanted. He scanned the room, enjoying the feeling of fear from all of them.

Suddenly he saw hope in their eyes. Crane growled at them but then he felt like someone was behind him. He whipped around and saw Batman standing there and Crane's eyes lit up with anger. Batman quickly moved towards him. Crane released the leaver on the canister. Batman took the full force of the chemical blast.

He tried to hold his breath but he wasn't quick enough and he inhaled some of the toxin. He heard people screaming and running from the theater. He managed to grabbed a hold of Crane. The waking nightmare started at that moment.

Scarecrows mask started to distort into a devil looking figure. The devil face started to laugh.

"Fear me Batman!" the ominous voice commanded. Batman's mind and vision started to see things that disturbed him. The devil lifted a red clawed hand towards him but something in him took control. Bruce watched as silver daggers shot out of his hands. The devil looking creature looked at Batman's hands in horror.

The devil tried to pull away from Batman, clearly frightened. It caused Batman to laugh.

"Not so scary now, are you bub!" Batman growled. He lifted his hand ready to plunge these silver daggers into Crane's chest. Luckily his new healing powers quickly cleaned the fear toxin out of his system. He regained control of himself in time not to kill the Scarecrow. Batman released Crane and watched him fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Crane crawled backwards away from him, completely terrified.

Batman looked at the claws sticking out of his hands. He had almost killed Crane and Batman could still feel the desire to do so within him. He pushed down the feeling and the claws slowly retracted back into his body. He heard Crane crying.

"What the hell are you?" the frightened man squealed. Batman calmly walked over to the shaking man and picked him up. Grabbing his wrist he rotated him around and handcuffed him while Crane put up no resistance. He was just to scared of this demon Batman. Batman lead him out of the theater. Crane continued to babble on about what he saw, acting as though he had inhaled a good portion of his own fear toxin. Once outside Batman handed him over to the police.

Gordon walked up to him. "Great job Batman." Batman nodded his head.

"There are four more men in the theater." he told Gordon

Crane cried out again, "What the hell are you!" Everyone turned and looked at Crane. Gordon turned back and Batman was gone. They placed Crane in the patrol car as he continued to mumble about the clawed demon Batman was now.

Batman returned to the cave. He needed time to think about what had just happened. Once he was back at the cave he tried to get the claws to come back out. When they popped out he jerked in fright. He looked at them. They looked like polished steel and were razor sharp.

He slashed out at a sheet of metal on one of his work tables. The blades sliced the metal like it was tissue paper. That puzzled him, how could the metal claws effortlessly cut one inch solid metal. Wayne Tech was working on similar metals, but none had the capabilities of the stuff in him. He tried to scrape a sample of the metal, but nothing he used to take the sample could even scratch the surface.

He tried dabbing a small amount of acid on it. The tiny drop did nothing. Wiping it away he tried it against the hard granite of the cave. The claws entered the harden rock like loose sand. Once set he could lift himself up by them. He climbed the rock face, testing out the limits. It was slow going at first. Once he got his rhythm down he could scale the walls in moments.

Alfred came down and noticed Bruce twenty meters above him. He watched as he continued to climb higher. He noticed metal spears from his fists. Alfred coughed causing Bruce to lose his footing. He fell to the ground. Alfred ran up to him worried that he had injured himself.

"Master Bruce you alright?" he asked in concern. Bruce nodded his head and flipped back up to his feet.

"I'm fine Alfred. Just testing something out." Bruce said as he extracted the claws. Stoic Alfred actually jerked away from the lethal looking blades. Bruce waved them around showing them to Alfred.

"I say, Master Bruce. Those look very frightening." he said in amazement. Bruce retracted them and walked over to his massive computer. He sat down and started to explain what had happened to him tonight. Alfred listened in awe.

"But the strangest thing happened tonight during my hallucinations, Alfred. It felt like someone else was in control of my body. I even heard myself say call Crane bub." Bruce told him as he ran his hands through his hair.

"This sounds like a mystery Master Bruce. If I might say so, you need to investigate throughly the changes that are happening to you. You wouldn't want anymore surprises in the field that could potentially lead to disaster." Alfred told him. Bruce nodded his head, but found he wasn't as excited or driven to do research on the mystery as he usually was. He looked over at the box of cigars and grabbed one. After lighting it and inhaling the smoke he turned to Alfred.

"It was a dimensional device that cause this. Maybe I was merged with someone? From what Tim said he saw someone in the exact location I was in." He inhaled on his cigar. Alfred nodded his head.

"I would say that could be true sir as I've never see you smoke before." Alfred said. Bruce held the cigar away from himself. He'd never craved them before. But now he did, and he enjoyed the taste and feel of them.

"You're right; I have to get to the bottom of this." Bruce said then looked at Alfred. "Alfred.. to tell you the truth.. I sort of like this.. You just watched me drop over 20 meters and not even get hurt.. This power could be a blessing.. but.." he sighed, "I know I have to undo this, something inside of me knows this situation isn't right. Also.. I felt an almost unstoppable urge tonight.. I was very tempted to stick these claws into Crane's chest." Bruce knew he would've done it if he hadn't regained control.

Alfred looked at him and said, "Maybe more mediation would help, sir." Bruce simply nodded his head. Alfred started his way back up to the manor. "Dinner will be ready soon, Master Bruce. I suggest you get cleaned up...you smell of cigars and jasmine,"Alfred twitched his acute nose and continued, "Which is a peculiar smell even for you." Alfred disappeared into the darkness of the stairwell. Bruce thought he heard Alfred mutter, "I wonder who she is?" and a smile spread over his face.

He continued to smile as he remembered how he got the smell of jasmine on him. His body became aroused as he thought of his sparring session with the Princess. He got up and threw the cigar down the shaft of the cave. As he walked over to the changing area of the cave his mind was on her.

He licked his lips and he could still taste her on his mouth. Remembering her moaning in his arms made his heart race. His body was fully aroused as he stepped into the shower and he immediately switched the faucets to cold to clear his mind. What was he doing thinking of her this way. Not only was she a respected colleague she was a virgin as well. She had no sexual experience and here he was pouncing on her. _She didn't kiss like a virgin, _he thought to himself. He angrily made himself stand in the cold water until he stopped thinking lewd thoughts about her.

He had more important things to worry about. He frowned when he thought about how he had been tempted to kill or at the least maim Crane tonight. He knew he couldn't function as Batman if he couldn't control his rage. He would have to lock himself up in the cave until he figured out how to reverse the changes he was experiencing.


	4. Secrets Revealed

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me!

Once again Many many Many Thanks to DaisyJane for the beta! Without her assistant this story would suck. And thanks to Lady Isis for the suggestions and help.

Enjoy All.

**Dark Claw**

Chapter 4: Secrets revealed.

Bruce was hard at work. He had been trying to piece the device back together for almost a week now. He hadn't been to the office for that week so he could devote more time to fixing the device. Besides he didn't trust his control over his temper and he couldn't be flashing claws at his staff. That would definitely raise questions he couldn't answer. He had gone on patrol, but never alone. He was always with either Tim or Barbara who watched to make sure he kept it in line.

He turned and went over to the Cray supercomputer. He had found out who the female was that had created the device. Her name was Heather Jones, age twenty-eight. She'd had a masters degree from MIT in Quantum Physics and a large amount of student debt. Her thesis on multi-dimensions was very intriguing. The math looked solid but her ideas were a little questionable. Bruce had managed to piece some of the electronics back together based on information in her papers that she had published and he had found on the internet. Tim and Barbara had retrieved more notebooks of her work from her apartment.

Bruce suddenly froze at his computer as he felt a presence he had been expecting for a few days. Bruce turned with a glare as he watched Superman enter the Cave and land next to him.

"Why were there dents the size of a man bat in the training room?" Superman asked him as he crossed his arms across his chest with a smirk.

Bruce turned his attention back to the information on the screen ignoring the big blue boy scout in the hope that he would just go away. No such luck.

Clark rolled his eyes, then said, "I saw the footage of the fight Bruce." Bruce slowly turned and gave him a hard stare.

"Did you erase them?" he asked harshly. Clark shook his head no. "Why not?" he growled.

"Evidence, that I wasn't responsible for the damage. I didn't know you had feelings for Diana?" he cheekily smiled.

Bruce gave him the batglare for a moment and then said, "I don't." He was about to turn his attention back to the computer screen when he felt another presence in the Cave watching them. His training and now enhanced sense of smell picked up the person that was spying on them. She smelt like jasmine.

He turned angrily toward Superman and screamed, "You fucking idiot. She tracked you here. You have enhanced senses and you didn't realized she was following you." He let out a growl as he jumped up from his chair. He gripped Clark by the top of his cape. Clark looked shocked at the way he was acting. He took a quick scan with his x-ray vision and found Diana was hiding in the cave.

He turned back to apologize to Bruce but was met with a solid fist to his face. It knocked him down to the ground. What shocked Clark most was that his lip was cut. He looked up at Bruce and saw the animistic anger on his face. Clark hopped back to his feet, angry at Bruce for punching him. Another fist came flying at Clark. He blocked the blow and decided to end this altercation quickly. Clark lashed out at him with his own fist.

The blow knocked Bruce back against the cave wall. Clark shook his hand as it actually hurt to punch Bruce. Clark remembered his amazement at the unbelievable images of him fighting Diana and not getting injured. Something had definitely changed with Bruce and it was why he had come to the Cave. Bruce came back at Clark with a sneer on his face. Bruce landed a solid punch to Clark's ribs. It knocked the breath from him. Clark back handed Bruce with a little too much force, causing a gash on his face. Clark watched in amazement as it healed instantly. Bruce had had enough and with a growl he extracted his claws. Clark's eyes opened wide when he saw the metal claws.

Diana had decided that she was going to help Batman but she had no idea how to find him. She had researched him on the internet but there was very little information about him that was of any use. She figured that he had to have a lot of money to afford all the fancy gadgets and vehicles and so she had pulled up information on all the rich men in Gotham who could possibly be Batman. She had just been trying to figure out how she was going to check out the different men when she overheard Superman talking to J'onn saying he was going to talk to Batman about some surveillance video. She decided to track him.

She had been gifted by Artemis to be an expert hunter and tracker and she knew how to mask her movements with surface noise so that Superman's enhanced senses wouldn't pick up her movements. She followed him from the Watchtower to Metropolis and then from Metropolis to Gotham and the coastline into a hidden opening on a cliff and into the Cave. She hid and watched Superman talk to a man whom she assumed was Batman. She looked closely at him and recognized him as Bruce Wayne, the richest man in Gotham who had been one of the men on her list. Unfortunately he had detected her presence in the Cave and had become furious at Kal-El. She'd seen him punch Superman and the two men had begun fighting. She rolled her eyes at this display of testosterone. Then to her horror she saw metal daggers come out of Batman's fists. With the speed of Hermes she flew between the two angry men.

Bruce couldn't control his anger at Clark's stupidity. His mind was out of control as he slashed his right claw out at him. A metal on metal clank with sparks stopped him from connecting. He turned stared into the shocked but fierce eyes of Diana. Her unbreakable bracelets had stopped him from sinking his claws into his friend.

"Enough you two!" Diana commanded with a yell. She stood between them in full princess royal mode.

Clark did a quick x-ray of Bruce. What he saw shocked him as Bruce's entire skeleton was now metal. The atomic structure of the metal was unlike anything he had seen before. Bruce and Diana continued to eye each other as Bruce regained control of himself. The claws slowly retracted back into his hands. He looked almost ashamed of himself.

"I'm... I'm sorry Superman." he said. Clark listened as Bruce apologized, but he saw the total self-loathing on Bruce's face at what he'd done. Diana continued to hold her stance. She was ready for Bruce to attack once again. Bruce dropped down on his chair and it creaked under his weight.

"Bruce... I mean Batman." Clark quickly said.

Bruce let out a large sigh. "You can call me Bruce now Kent. Diana now knows who I am," he said in a resigned voice. But felt a little relief that he had also sort of given Superman's identity away.

"If it makes you feel better, Batman, I figured out Superman's secret identity was Clark Kent months ago. You where much harder to figure out."

Bruce nearly laughed at the shocked expression on Clark's face. He couldn't help but be impressed by her intelligence. People only saw her beauty and strength and forgot about the brains underneath.

"But..But...How did you....?" Clark choked out.

"How you fool anyone with a pair of glasses and a clumsy demeanor is beyond me." Diana said dismissively but patted Clark on the shoulder to reassure him that she was still his friend and would continue to keep his secret.

The three stood silently for a few moments. Clark finally had to ask.

"What happened to you Bruce? I can see your skeleton is made of an unusual metal." he asked.

Bruce rubbed his eyes then told him everything. During the talk Bruce went over to a fridge and took out a bottle of beer. He had gained another weird craving; he now enjoyed drinking beer. It had taken a few days to find the one he liked best. He had tried several but an imported brand called Molson Canadian was the one that quenched the craving.

Clark watched as Bruce chugged the beer. He never seen Bruce drink alcohol, ever.

"Bruce what ever happened to you in that explosion has changed you in more ways then just your body," he observed as he pointed at the beer.

Bruce shrugged his shoulders and grabbed a cigar and lit it up. "I know. I've been having these cravings for cigars and beers. I've also been having a hard time to controlling my anger. I've increased my meditation time to try regain control but it isn't really working. That is why I am hiding out in the Cave," Bruce sighed. He turned and looked at the both of them. "You can't call on me for any League emergencies. I can't control myself. What if I kill someone in the heat of battle?" His heart sank at the thought.

"Batman we will help figure out what happened to you and fix this." Diana said in a sure tone. Bruce placed his beer bottle down on his computer console and got up from his seat. He started to pace in front of them. Seeing Bruce's confusion caused both Clark and Diana to feel a little worried for the normally confident man.

"I think you should have J'onn do a telepathic scan on you. Maybe he can put up a mental block that will help with controlling your increased anger." Clark stated. He knew Bruce wouldn't allow it. He was to protective of his mind. But he got another surprise from Bruce as he slowly nodded his head.

"I think that would be best, if he can help control my anger then I will be able to work more quickly at fixing this devise. My mind has been in turmoil and I need to be able focus if I am going to get this thing working so I can reverse what happened. I haven't had one good nights rest. I shredded my bed last night." he sighed as he remembered what happened. He awoke from that same nightmare of being submerged in the tank. When he woke up his claws had mangled his bed.

Bruce inhaled on the cigar and looked at the two. "My worst fear is happening to me. I'm losing control of my mind."

Diana walked up to him and place her hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "We will help you any way we can Bat.. Bruce." She'd finally said his name and Bruce looked into her beautiful eyes. His name had never sounded so heavenly as it did from her lips. He felt his attraction for her increase. She was smart, beautiful and her voice was so sexy. He stared at her hungrily. Diana saw the look and felt her face heat up. It caused her to feel like she did when he kissed her before. She gave him her own heated look. Bruce was just about to grab her and press his mouth to her lips when Superman spoke pulling him from his passionate thoughts.

"Come up to the Watchtower Bruce." Clark said not noticing the exchange between the two as he was too worried about the changes in Bruce. Bruce turned his attention towards Clark and nodded his head in agreement. Bruce walked into the changing rooms and put on his batsuit. Two minutes later Bruce entered with his suit on minus the cowl. He was still smoking the cigar. He walked up to the computer once again and polished off his beer with a burp. Clark let out a little snicker at this.

"I'm ready, lets go." The three left the cave with Superman flying Batman to the spot outside Metropolis where Diana had parked the Javelin she'd used it to leave the Watchtower. Once on the station the three went to the conference room where J'onn was waiting for them.

"Hello Superman, Batman and Diana." the green Martian greeted them. They all took their regular seats and explained to J'onn what had happened to Batman. He listened intently to them. They asked if he could help with controlling Batman's new found anger.

"I will try." J'onn's monotone voice said as he got up and took a seat next to Batman. "I will need to make direct surface contract with you Batman. It will make the connection stronger." Batman took off one of his gloves. J'onn reached out and touched his hand. His eyes started to glow as he peered into Batman's mind.

It was clouded at first. He then saw a beam of light. Bruce was on one end of the light closest to him. The beam of light stretched in to the fuzzy distance. He saw what looked like two other people at the end of it. J'onn moved passed Bruce and traveled towards the other beings. It was like swimming up stream. The harder he tried to move forward the stronger the force that pushed him back. He looked forward and saw one of the figures move towards him.

Halfway between Batman and another person, J'onn meet up with a bald headed man. They stared at each other for a moment. J'onn could sense the other was a strong telepath. They both reached out further with their minds to communicate with the other. The connection was weak but they managed to transmit a blast of information to each other. The connection between the two became unstable and forced them stop. J'onn feeling weak slowly returned to his starting point.

Soon he was standing next to Bruce. His mind had gotten too much information at once and that tired him but before he broke contact with Bruce he placed a mental block on the beam of light. It was still there but not as strong as it once was. His eyes stopped glowing and he looked at Batman. "How are you feeling now?" he asked him. Batman exhaled deeply.

"A lot better." J'onn nodded his head and closed his eyes.

"I sensed another mind linked to yours. I placed a barrier in the way. I don't know if it will last, return to me right away if you feel any increased anger." he told Batman as he stood up. "I need to go and reflect on what I saw." he left the room quickly.

Batman stood up "I'm returning to Gotham to continue my work on the device. If you really need me call but only if its an extreme emergency." he said in his deep stoic voice. He turned and walked out of the room.

Clark looked at Diana. "I've known Bruce for a long time Diana. He has always had extreme control over his emotions. It scares me to think what could happen if he can't maintain that control. I think we might have to keep a closer eye on him," he sighed. "Bruce may not have superpowers... Well now he does. He could be the most dangerous man on earth if he puts his mind to it."

Diana saw the real fear in Clark's eyes. This caused her to feel a shiver run down her spine. If Clark felt he could be that dangerous before getting super powers what would he be like if he lost control with the powers he had now? She didn't want to see or think about that.

"Don't worry Kal. I will kept an eye on him. Besides missions and monitor duty, I have little else to do. I know you have other obligations." she said with a smile trying to reassure him.

Clark look at her and said, "That would be great. Are you sure you want to though. Bruce isn't an easy person to be around.

Diana's eyes lit up with a secret knowledge, "I think I can handle it Kal and I don't mind at all."

Clark nodded his head feeling better knowing Diana was on it. He knew Bruce but did he really know him? The man was very unpredictable and could make Lex Luthor look like an alter boy if he set his mind to it.


	5. Learning and Tracking

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me!

Many Many Many Thanks to DaisyJane for the beta! Without her assistant this story would suck, and not in a good way. And thanks to Lady Isis for the suggestions and help, hope the Holidays recharged your creative juices!

**Dark Claw**

Chapter 5: Learning and Tracking.

J'onn entered his private quarters. The room was bare except for a standard bed and dresser. A mat was laid out on the floor. He walked over to it and sat down crossed legged and closed his eyes. He was still trying to sort out what he saw during his experience in Batman's mind and he had retreated to his room to mediate.

The person he'd met in there was a very powerful telepath but the information he'd transmitted to J'onn's mind was all mixed up. J'onn slowly shifted through all the thoughts he'd received and after day he'd managed to get all the information straightened out inside his head.

The man's name was Charles Xavier and he ran a school for people with special gifts. In their universe they were called mutants instead of metas. Some how Batman had been merged with another from that universe, but it wasn't a full merge, more of a copy of genetics and minds. The man the Batman had merged with was named Logan and he was also called Wolverine. Logan had been in an explosion similar to the one that Batman had experienced. They saw right away that something had happened to Logan by the sudden change in Logan's stature.

Logan was a short man before the merge but now he mirrored Batman in height. Logan seemed to mirror Batman in a lot of aspects of his personality, except for one trait that J'onn almost found frightening. Logan exerted far less control over his anger and wasn't above killing if he thought it necessary. That was antithetical to Batman's basic nature and could have devastating consequences to his psyche if he were ever to cross that line.

Charles Xavier speculated that the link was growing. He surmised that in time there would no longer be two different men but that they would totally merge forming a new person in each universe that was neither Batman or Wolverine.

J'onn opened his eyes and stood up. He needed to tell Superman about the information that he had learned.

Batman was sitting on a ledge with Robin. Tonight's patrol was like most others. Bust up a mugging, beat up the bad guys. Stop a robbery, beat up the bad guys. Bruce stood looking down at his city. He was thinking about how much easier patrolling the city had been with meta powers. It was nice not having to worrying about breaking bones or permanent injuries.

He hadn't felt the lack of control over his anger since he allowed J'onn into his mind and that was a relief. He only wanted to stop crime, not be a part of it. He knew if he allowed himself to break his cardinal rule of no killing he wouldn't be any better than them. He looked over at Robin and decided it was time to call it a night.

The return home was quiet until Robin asked him. "You're acting like your old self once again, what happened?"

Bruce thought about lying to him, but partners don't lie to each other. "I had J'onn place a mental block to stop the anger from overtaking me." Tim looked him and nodded his head. "Do the claws frighten you Tim?" he asked as he continued to navigate the batmobile.

Tim sat there for a few moments deep in thought then said, "No, because I know and trust you, but if you go crazy insane I will stop you." Tim gave him a hard stare full of confidence that he could stop his mentor. Bruce nearly laughed but instead nodded his head.

He parked the batmobile in the cave and Tim was off to bed. Bruce had time to work on the device a little more and got to work. After working for awhile he noticed that it was almost four in the morning and he needed to get some sleep. He was going to attend a meeting at Wayne Enterprises at noon and he had a charity ball to attend that evening. Bruce Wayne hadn't been seen for almost two weeks. He would make a quick appearance at the event then leave as quickly as he could. Hopefully whatever J'onn had done would hold so he could figure out the solution to this puzzle. Bruce made his way up to the manor.

* * *

Bruce and his date for the night entered Leslie Ashton's grand ballroom. Mindy or Missy, whatever her name, was draped on his custom-made black tuxedo's left shoulder. He decided to go for a change from his usual blond as Marley or was it Milly had red hair with green eyes and fair skin. Her eyes twinkled with excitement as they entered the room and the green dress she was wearing accentuated her lovely figure. She had been flown in from New York to attend this event and she was perfect arm candy. The twenty-one year old actress had an agenda of her own as she was hoping to make contacts with people who could launch her so far mediocre career.

Her eyes still had spots in them from the many camera flashes as they entered the mansion. She didn't know what the ball was about and didn't really care. She noticed, once her eyes regained focus, a few famous actors at the ball. She would have to wait until her date was occupied then she would approach them.

Bruce's slanted smile and slightly vacant eyes scanned the room. _Yes, the usual group of snobby Gotham society people_ he thought with a touch of contempt. Half didn't even know why they were here. Leslie Ashton had this ball once a year to help out orphaned children around the world. Bruce respected the spirit of the ball but not the host or the people attending. Leslie had this ball to showcase her impressive home. The house was second only to Wayne Manor in scale and majesty though the furnishings and decor were far flashier.

Bruce mingled with his calculating bimbo. He felt her attention wasn't directed towards him as he knew she was only here to promote her own career. That is why she was a perfect date for the evening as he wouldn't have to worry about how to ditch her as she would be too busy mingling with the famous actors to notice that he was gone. It didn't bother him at all. He was using her just as much as she was using him. He got into a long winded talk with a fellow patron of the ball. He allowed his date this time to run off in search of her fame and fortune.

After half an hour of mindless chit chat he made his way towards the buffet by the open French doors. He was looking over the selection of hors d'oeuvres when he caught her fragrance. He picked up a canapé and slowly turned around to inspect the room. His trained eyes scanned each and every person as she could possibly be wearing a disguise. She was not among the people in the ballroom so he turned back towards the buffet and looked toward the French doors that were allowing a cool breeze to enter the overheated ballroom. Bruce looked out each window surrounding them and stopped when he saw a flash of gold.

_So she's trying to keep tabs on me_ he thought. _I wonder if it was her idea or the boy-scout's. _He shoved the canapé into his mouth and chewed it while planning out how to escape without her knowing as he didn't need a over protective meta on his tail all night. He then caught her scent again from the open French doors and changed his plan. Bruce quickly exited them and walked down the stone pathway leading him to a large garden.

_She's good_ he thought as he was having a hard time judging her distance from him. He noticed a dirt pathway leading through some woods that surrounded the eastern part of the estate and he turned down the path.

Diana had been watching him through the extremely large windows in the ball room. She floated high enough in the air not to be noticed by anyone looking out the window. The night was quiet so she could hear the music playing from a few opened windows. She felt a little melancholy as she watched the people inside enjoying the party. She felt like an outsider especially as she watched Bruce and his date. Something about his date left a bitter taste in her mouth. She looked like a woman who was only concerned with the way she looked and if people noticed her or not. She seem like most of the women she'd seen him with when she'd researched him on the internet. How could he want to be with shallow women like his date?

His goofy look almost made Diana laugh out loud. How could one of the worlds most deadliest heroes, who brought fear to everyone he met, look so goofy at the moment? Diana watched his date slink away which seemed to ease the knot in her stomach. Being relieved by his date leaving him also puzzled her. Even if the woman was shallow and self involved Diana should be on her side and not disliking her for dating Bruce. Her feelings were definitely perplexing and Diana would have to think about this in more depth, but not at this time.

Bruce had left the ballroom and was walking down towards a garden. Diana had to land because the many trees and large hedges blocked her view of him from the air. She used Amazon training to track him carefully into the woods. He turned off into a dirt trail.

Diana turned down it also but he wasn't anywhere to be found and she suddenly couldn't distinguish his foot prints. The trail was twisted and the wind at her back was causing her hair to fly in her face blocking her eyes. She quickly twisted in back into a knot and she quietly made her way down the path. A deep harsh baritone voice suddenly boomed behind her nearly causing her to jump.

"Why are you following me, Princess?!" Bruce growled, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word princess, as he came out of the shadows in the trees lining the path. Diana turned and looked at Bruce. The minimal light caused his face to look almost like Batman with his cowl on. She could see his steel blue eyes coldly staring at her as his jaw hardened and his mouth compressed into a thin line.

"Just making sure you don't get the urge to slice and dice all those lovely people." Diana said in a light tone trying to use humor to lighten Bruce's obviously dark mood. She gave him a winning smile but he just continued to stare at her coldly. Her smiled slowly faded.

"Now listen to me Wonder Woman," he hissed with barely controlled anger as he moved threateningly towards her. "I'm in total control of my emotions, especially my anger, and I don't need a meta powered babysitter. I don't like metas in my city and you are not welcome here."

Diana's playful nature vanished in an instant. She looked at him with a bit of her own anger.

"Look Bruce, I'm only watching out for a colleague and a friend. You would do the same for me!" she nearly yelled at him.

Bruce couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked as she glared at him. He felt his facial features softening a little as he realized that she was correct, he would have done the exact same thing for her. In fact he probably would have planted a tracking devise on her and reprogrammed her communicator so that he could hear her conversations. Still he did not like to be followed around like he was some kind of criminal.

"I understand Diana, but I still don't want or need your assistance." he said in a terse but much less angry voice. Due to his close proximity to her and his heightened sense of smell he kept inhaling her sweet feminine scent. It was so much better than Mandie or was it Marnie...whatever her name's scent. He felt himself becoming aroused and his attitude changed from aggressive to flirtatious. "But," he licked his lips,"if someone has to follow me around, I'm glad its you and not Clark. ou look and smell so much better." He gave her a passionate stare.

Diana felt her breath catch in her throat as she saw the fire in his eyes. The two stared at each other as electricity seemed to crackle in the air between them. Diana's eyes flickered down his face and stopped at his lips. She continued to stare at those lips that had caused her a few restless nights since their impromptu sparring session.

Bruce's experienced eyes watched her and the passionate stare she was giving his mouth caused him a great deal of excitement. He felt his control slowly evaporating as he took a few steps closer to her. He watched as she pulled her hair free of the lose knot she had twisted into into earlier. Her now loosened hair blew around her face and her scent drew him in. They were standing less then a meter from each other and he was tempted to close the distance and wrap his arms around her.

"I.. We are worried about you." she said in a husky voice. Bruce stared into her deep blue eyes and nodded his head.

"**You**," he emphasized the word you, "are worried about me? I'm fine Diana." he said softly.

Diana's eyes turned a little mischievous. "You have an interesting fighting style." she mused. Bruce looked at her confused. She stepped closer to him causing Bruce to visibly swallow. "I've never had that..." Diana eyes locked onto Bruce's lips once again, "particular style used on me before." Diana almost purred. She looked up into his eyes. The two stood staring at each other again feeling their breaths start to mingle as they stepped closer together. Bruce was about kiss her when he saw a flash of yellow light in the sky.

Bruce pulled away from Diana, causing her to look at him in question. His jaw tightened and he quickly turned into the Bat as he said, "Sorry but I have to run Princess... Maybe we can discuss this some other time." His eyes never leaving the light in the sky. Diana turned and looked up and there high in the sky reflecting off of the clouds was the infamous batsignal. Diana turned back to look at Bruce, but he was gone.

Diana let out a loud sigh. Why was she so drawn to him? The man always knew how to infuriate her and usually with just a few simple words. Yet he also caused a stirring within her very heart and loins. The more she got to know of him the more he seemed to be a mystery. On one hand he was so tender and kind and on the other he was ruthless and uncaring.

She thought just a few moments ago he was going to set her lips ablaze again. But his disappearing act caused her temper to raise instead of her desire. She closed her eyes and focused on her Amazon training. She would not allow a man to lead her down the wrong path but as an Amazon she was also taught to go after what she wanted. The problem was that she wasn't sure what she wanted. Diana opened her eyes. Sending out a silent prayer to her goddesses. _What do I do? _was all she thought. When no answer came she took to the air to return back to the Watchtower. She would have to deal with the problem of Bruce/Batman another day.


	6. Finding out

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many thanks to the talented, intelligent and beautiful Lady Isis for the beta. Yeah I'm a suck up.

To my pal DaisyJane, thanks for always being there to bounce my ideas off of and always being a kind and thoughtful person you are. :)

Hepburn the great, still need a dictionary to understand you when we chat. Lol. ;)

KittyBatman, you will find your dark knight one of these years. Hope he can handle your twisted imagination. Hehe ;)

Icha, stop looking at all that data and continue your lovely story! ;)

StormyNightengale, hope this keeps you tied over until the next chapter. :) To everyone else, enjoy I hope I don't disappoint anyone.

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 6: Finding out.**

As J'onn exited his room, he mentally searched out Superman. He found him in the monitor room, and headed in that direction. He needed to discuss with him about what he had just deciphered. He entered the large room and saw Superman and Hawkgirl talking. J'onn made his way towards the two. They both looked at J'onn and stopped discussing a new protocol Hawkgirl really wanted added.

"J'onn, is there a problem?" Superman asked him. The concern on J'onn's face caught his eye.

J'onn nodded his head. "Yes, Superman. Could we talk in private?" he asked him.

Superman looked down at Hawkgirl who just raised her hand and shooed the two away. Superman smiled down at her in thanks for understanding the interruption. She simply smiled back at him and turned her attention to one of the monitors. J'onn and Superman walked out of the room and headed towards the conference room. Once inside Superman turned to J'onn.

"What is bothering you, J'onn?" he asked him as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"When I entered Batman's mind I said there was another there. Well it took a while to mentally decipher what I received. There were two others actually. One was connected to Batman by a mental link that seems to be cross dimensional. The other was a powerful telepath like me," J'onn monotone voice told Superman, who simply nodded his head in understanding.

"The man that is connected to Batman is the one with the mutant powers... they call meta powers mutant powers in their universe," J'onn told him as Superman absorbed the information. "The man's name is Logan, his call sign is Wolverine, his mutant powers are rapid healing to the point of almost being invincible."

Superman nodded his head once again; he had seen with his own eyes Bruce's rapid healing.

J'onn continued explaining. "He was born with retractable claws that only come out when he is extremely angry. They were bone originally but during a military experiment they grafted a metal called adamantium to his skeleton. It's nearly indestructible."

Superman's eyes enlarged. So that's why it hurt when Bruce punched him. He subconsciously rubbed his jaw.

"Both Batman and this Logan have similar personalities. But..." J'onn actually sighed.

Superman raised an eyebrow at this. J'onn never really showed emotions, sort of like Bruce. _I guess that is why they work well together,_ Clark mused to himself.

"Because of Logan's temper he has been known to kill in self-defense," J'onn said with a little worry in his voice.

Superman inhaled deeply. This information shocked him a bit, he saw the wild look in Bruce's eyes when they got into that fight. J'onn noticed the worried look on his face.

"Something happened between you two?" J'onn said as he felt a wave of fear come from Superman. This was the first time he felt that emotion from Superman and he didn't like the feeling of it.

"Yes," Superman simply stated.

"I placed that block on him, Superman. It should hold for a while. But..." J'onn didn't know how to continue with his train of thought.

Superman looked up with his brow in a deep frown. "But if Batman loses control we will have to stop him," he finished.

J'onn's mouth simply tightened up, giving Superman his response.

"Another thing; the link is growing stronger. My counterpart in the other universe thinks they are merging mentally and soon there will be no Batman or Logan just a merging of the two into one new personality - one in each universe, connected by the link," J'onn said.

"Then we have to discuss this with everyone," Superman said as he placed his hand to his ear. Pressing the League communicator he said. "Emergency meet. And that even means you Batman," he commanded.

Everyone replied back that they would be there within the hour except Batman. Superman waited five minutes for Bruce to reply back before he walked towards the door way.

"J'onn, I will be right back with Batman." J'onn nodded his head as Superman exited the room.

Hawkgirl was walking towards the door when she saw him leave. "Where are you off to?" she asked him with a little concern.

Superman strolled by her and replied, "To bring Batman up here," as he continued to walk.

Hawkgirl whispered, "Good luck," as she entered the conference room.

Superman heard her and a frown crept onto his face. If Bruce was not in the mood he would have to drag him up here kicking and screaming. Superman took a Javelin down to Gotham, and parked it a few kilometers away from the city. He flew high into the sky and looked around for Batman.

It took him almost twenty minutes to locate him. He had just captured some thugs when Superman landed next to him. Batman kept his back to him.

"What are you doing here?!" he growled out at Superman.

Superman simply folded his arms across his chest. "We have some news about your situation, Batman. You have to come up to the Watchtower."

Batman turned and looked at him with the batglare. Clark raised an eyebrow at him in challenge.

"And if I don't want to come up there? You're going to do what?" Bruce questioned him.

Clark sighed. "We can do it the easy way or..." He left the threat opened ended.

Batman took a few powerful strides closer to Clark. He stopped and tried to stare him down. When Clark just continued to stare right back at him he spoke up.

"Fine, Gotham does not need to be leveled tonight," Bruce said as he lifted his arms up. Clark unfolded his arms and picked Batman up by the outstretched arms.

When they returned to the Watchtower everyone was there. Batman and Superman walked into the conference room and took their respective seats. Superman spoke up once everyone was looking at him.

"Batman had an accident and now has changed," he said. Everyone turned and looked at Batman. They noticed his tightened jaw and the glare he was giving Superman. Superman then continued to ignoring the death glare from Batman.

"He was sort of merged with another person from another reality."

Wally opened his mouth but got a glare from Diana, he closed his mouth slowly.

"The reason we are having this meeting is that J'onn has made contact with the other universe. It looks like Batman and this other person's minds are merging still. If we can't stop this, Batman," Clark stared hard at Bruce who was finally listening without giving him the glare anymore, "you both will merge into a hybrid. The Batman we know will be a totally different person." Clark sighed then dropped the bomb, for the real reason they were having this meeting. "This other person has no problems with killing."

Bruce looked at him and knew this to be true. Everyone at the table turned and looked at him to watch his reaction or none reaction.

Batman looked down at his opened gloved hands. Were these abilities worth becoming someone else? He thought maybe they were until he heard about how he might start killing villains. He closed his eyes and knew the answer to his question that had been festering in his mind for the past week. He looked back up at Clark.

"What can we do to stop this?" his deep monotone voice asked.

Clark let out the silent breath that he had been holding. If Bruce had not agreed to this, how would they stop him? He had shown him that he could hurt him with just his fist, let alone those claws he now possessed.

J'onn spoke up. "Maybe I should try again to contact the other side and see if they have been working on a way to change this situation?" Everyone quickly agreed that would be best. J'onn stood up and walked over towards Batman.

Batman stood up and removed his gloves. "It will be the same as before, Batman. But now that I know how it works, I should not be long." Batman nodded his head and reached his hand out towards the green Martian. J'onn grabbed the hand and closed his eyes, and everyone watched the two.

J'onn appeared in the cloudy mind of Batman and made his way towards the bright beam of light once again. He noticed Batman standing there again with the block still in place. He looked into the distance and noticed just one person at the other end.

He slowly made his way towards the other. The pushing force wasn't as hard as before. When he reached the other side he looked at the man.

He had a scruffy facial exterior but he wasn't looking at J'onn. J'onn touched him and was transported inside his mind. This mind was unlike any he had ever been in before. It was shattered and fragmented. He thought to himself, _How can one man's mind be this chaotic?_ He found the vocal area of his brain and spoke out.

"Logan, can you get Charles in your mind? This is the other universe," J'onn asked him calmly.

A few seconds later he got a gruff reply. "Yeah, I can."

Several minutes later J'onn was face to face with the bald headed face of Charles Xavier. "J'onn, glad we could speak once again," Charles smiled at him.

J'onn nodded his head in agreement. "Yes. I'm here to talk about this mind-merging. Bruce, the man that is connected to Logan does not want to merge minds with him," J'onn stated. He had knew every member's real identity expect Hawkgirl's - he hadn't been able to read or even feel anything from her.

"Yes and Logan does not want it either. Logan can be difficult at times, but this other personality is even more annoying," Charles chuckled.

J'onn actually smiled. "Yes, Bruce has a knack for causing unwanted emotional out burst from others."

"We have been working on a multi trans-dimensional mind realigner that might be able to reverse what is happening, but we will need for you to create one on your end. Once they are completed we should be able to stop the merging. But this is all in theory," Charles sighed.

"We can do this," J'onn said. Charles closed his eyes and reopened them when another figure appeared next to him. The blue-furred man had gentle eyes and smiled a toothy grin at J'onn.

He reached out his hand. "Hi my name is Doctor Henry McCoy, but my friends call me Hank."

J'onn took the man's hand and shook it. "Charles called me in here because I'm the main person designing the device. Reach into my mind and take the blueprints and mathematical information back with you."

J'onn reached into the man's mind and retrieved the knowledge. Hank smiled then turned to Charles.

"He has it all." Charles closed his eyes and Hank faded away.

"Contact us when you have finished completing yours. We have ours almost done. If you have any questions or problems contact me again." Charles said.

J'onn nodded his head and slowly pulled back from Logan's broken mind. Once he was back at Bruce, he pulled out of his mind also.

He opened his eyes and looked into the dark cowl of Batman.

"Well?" Wally asked impatiently. John almost smacked him but held back because he wanted to know also.

J'onn turned and looked at the rest. "They are working on a multi trans-dimensional realigner. They asked us to create one also."

Batman nodded his head and was about to ask J'onn more about it when a large siren went off. Wally zipped over to a console on the wall. He turned and had a sorrowful look on his face.

"Metropolis is under attack!"


	7. Anger

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many thanks to the talented and great Lady Isis for the beta. Thanks to DaisyJane for her input and help on this story.

Shout outs to Hepburn, hope the weather is still beautiful. KittyBatman evil characters are the best. Icha, take your nose out of the date stream for a little while. ;)

Nightwatcher'sunknowngirl: Logan will make an appearance in this story sometime soon. AngelHawk: Thanks for the complement, this story has been a pleasant surprise. StormyNightengale: Another update for you. :) Miles333: There will be a few more surprises. If I missed anyone sorry. :(

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 7: Anger.**

"What?!" Superman jumped up from his chair.

Flash read out the display again. "Level omega threat. Two giant robots are currently attacking downtown Metropolis," he blurted out.

Everyone stood up from the table. Fixing Batman's situation would have to wait for the time being - an omega level threat was the highest threat level the League currently had.

Everyone rushed to the docking bay, and they all piled into one Javelin and headed directly to Metropolis. Once the craft was hovering over Metropolis the back hatch opened up, Superman was the first out, leading the way into his city. John enveloped Batman and Flash in a green bubble, and they descended down to the damaged city. The twenty story tall robots where blasting and smashing buildings. Superman flew towards one and was about to ram it when he got hit by a massive green blast of laser, sending him hurtling backwards.

John dropped Batman and Flash on the roof of a tall skyscraper. Flash took off the second the bubble disappeared. Batman ran towards the ledge and looked down at the chaos, the robots were massive. Flash was clearing people out of the way from the robots path. Wonder Woman, J'onn and Hawkgirl were attacking one closest to Batman.

J'onn tried to phase through the robot but was sent flying backwards - they seemed to have some kind of shielding to protect them from his phasing abilities. Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman were buzzing around the large body. Hawkgirl would yell then hit it with her mace. Diana was doing the same but smashing into it with her fists. Both of their attacks did little or no damage to the large metal beast.

John was blasting the other robot with green bolts from his ring, leaving tiny scorch marks on the robot metal surface. Superman finally returned flying towards the giant. John had distracted the robot enough for him to land a powerful blow to the robot. It left a dent in the metal. Multi laser cannons busted out from all over the body of the robot. Superman was about to hit the same spot when he was hit with several laser blasts, forcing him away from the robot. Its massive arm slammed into him.

The blow sent Superman flying into a building that was under construction. The large crane on its roof rocked back and started to fall. J'onn flew over and managed to grab it before it hit the ground where several people where still running away.

Batman had watched all this happen in less then a minute. He was about to tell Flash to hurry up with the evacuation of the people when he saw Diana get smashed to the ground. The giant robot's chest opened up and a larger laser cannon appeared. Batman looked around and saw that the others were to busy defending themselves.

Diana hadn't moved yet as the laser started to glow. Batman growled and fired his grappling hook. He flew down towards the prone Wonder Woman. He landed above her, him between the robot and her. She was slowly shaking off the blow that knocked her to the ground.

He lowered his hand towards hers. "Hurry, Diana," he said as she looked up at him.

Then he felt like his back had been lit on fire by a plasma torch. Diana's eyes opened wide, she watched as the beam hit him on the back. She smelt burning flesh, Batman dropped to one knee when the laser stopped. He couldn't take a breath, it was like his lungs wouldn't work anymore. Diana quickly wrapped her arms around him and flew both of them towards an alley way shielding them from the robots for the moment.

Batman final inhaled deeply, his breathing had returning to him. Diana turned him around and saw his back was exposed. The metallic spine, ribs and muscles where plain to see, but they were being rebuilt before her very eyes. Less then ten seconds later his back looked totally normal like nothing had happened.

"What are you trying to do, kill yourself?!" Diana said with concern.

Batman stood tall and straight. He just stared at her before he spoke. "I was trying to protect you," he told her.

As he made his move to leave, Diana gripped his wrist. "Your back was... _cooked_ off!" she told him.

Is that why he couldn't breathe? He felt fine now. Not wanting to argue with her, he pulled her tightly against him. He stared into her deep concerned blue eyes, he laid a kiss on her lips then pulled away.

"Let's get back to the action before someone really gets hurt," he said as Diana blinked a few times. The kiss stunned her into silence, but she didn't like to see him get hurt. He flew upwards along his grappling line. Diana shook her head and flew back into the battle.

He landed on top of the roof and looked around. Superman, Flash and John had their robot almost beaten. The giant beast was smoking and missing an arm and had several large holes in it. He looked over and saw the other one was defending itself better against J'onn, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman.

He tapped his communicator on his ear. "Flash, get up here, I need your assistance."

Before Batman finished his sentence Flash was standing next to him. "What do you need me to do?" Flash asked him.

Batman looked at Flash for a moment then said, wondering if what he was about to do was right. "I need to you to pick me up and super-spin my body towards that robot."

As Batman pointed to the one that had almost fried him, Flash's mouth dropped open. "That will kill you, Batman!" Flash said.

Batman just turned and smiled, with a flash of light his claws extracted from his fists. "Let me handle the landing!" he growled out.

Flash stood perfectly still, which was a first. He was to shocked at seeing Batman with claws to do as requested of him. "FLASH!" Batman yelled.

Batman's yell caused the speedster to shake his head quickly. He gripped Batman by the forearm and within a second there was a black and red spinning blur on the roof top. Flash released Batman, sending him sailing towards the monstrous metal beast.

Batman hit the robot with his fists, the claws dung in to the metal with easy. Batman shook his head, the effects of the spin and hitting the robot had dazed him. Once his head was clear he extracted one of his claws from the metal. He then carved a large square into it. Once the metal fell into the robot, Batman disappeared inside the over sized giant.

Diana and Shayera had watched him hit the robot then cut a hole into it. They looked at each other, aghast.

The mechanical devices in the robot were advanced. He didn't have much time to inspect them. He started to slash and cut the inner parts of the robot. He found the large generator, this would hurt just as bad or worse than the laser, but it needed to be done. Batman growled out as he jumped towards the large circler device. His claws slashed one of the main power cords, he felt the millions of volts running through out his body as his metal claws and skeleton conducted the electricity perfectly.

He finally managed to moved his arms and started to cut the generator up, it exploded in his face, throwing him against the metal of the robots inners. Something in him changed the instant he hit the wall. The pain from being fried by millions of volts and the explosion had disabled his control over his emotions.

Superman and John flew over to help with the remaining robot. But they stopped in shock as an explosion could be heard inside it. The robot stumbled and started to fall to the ground. Diana yelled out but was too late to stop it from hitting the ground or to retrieve Bruce before it fell. The robot finally collided with the ground, bouncing as it hit the street.

Everyone came forward towards the fallen robot. Then they heard a primal scream from inside the metal casing of the robot. Then sounds of metal on metal clashes. Superman used his x-ray vision to see what was happening. He took a step back at what he saw. Batman was nearly foaming at the mouth as he slashed at the inner workings of the robot. It was like watching a caged animal go berserk. Superman flew up on top of the fallen robots chest. He landed next to where Batman was inside the machine. He punched a hole in the metal and then ripped the metal away, making an opening for Batman to exit.

Batman came leaping out of the hole. His breathing was deep and quick. His claws were still extended and his body posture was hunched over as he stared at them all. Superman went over to see if he was all right when Batman lashed out at him with his claws. Saliva was dripping from his mouth. Diana landed behind him as Superman held up his hands trying to show him he meant no harm.

The rest watched in total awe at Batman's behavior. Diana spoke out "We are your friends, Batman."

She slowly walked towards him with her hands held up. Batman turned his body towards her, his muscles tightening up ready to strike. But once his eyes landed on her, he relaxed a little. Diana placed a hand on his shoulder and felt him tremble. His breathing was slowly returning to normal.

"We are not going to hurt you, Batman," Diana said softly.

Batman slowly stood up to his full height and nodded his head. He turned and looked at the rest of the group. Each and every one except J'onn and Superman had looks of worry on their faces. The claws retracted back into his fists. He tried to pull his cape around him for protection but found it to be almost nonexistent.

Batman whispered, "Thank you, Diana."

He turned and started to walk away. He felt so disappointed in himself for not being able to control this anger. But he did feel, for once, almost free of responsibilities. The simple mindless destruction of the inner works of the robot free his mind for a short while. As Batman, he always had to have control, he had to or people would die. In that berserker rage mode he felt joy, happiness and pleasure all wrapped into one feeling. The feeling caused an uneasiness within him.

If he let go again who would be able to stop himself? Seeing Diana and hearing her voice had forced him back to normal. She would not be around all the time to quiet the beast within.

J'onn caught up to him and said, "Batman let me check to see if the block is still in place." Batman stopped and looked defeated and lost to the Martian. He pulled his tattered glove away from his hand. J'onn took his hand and did a quick scan of his mind. The block had moved but was still in place.

"It's still holding up, Batman," J'onn told him.

"Good, let's get this device made so I can return to normal," Batman growled out as he moved away briskly from J'onn.

Superman and Diana landed next to J'onn. "Is that what the anger from that other person looks like, J'onn?" Superman questioned him with concern.

"Yes and no, the block is still in place... But the anger disabled it for a while. That wasn't just the other person's anger. That was mostly Batman's; the man has a lot of trapped rage in him," J'onn replied.

Superman nodded his head in agreement. It didn't take a telepath to feel the anger pour off Batman when he was standing there ready to slice and dice you.

"What did he say?" Diana asked him with a little concern in her voice.

"He wants to return back to himself as soon as possible," J'onn said.

Superman nodded in agreement. "We should start to work on it after we clean up this mess," he said.

J'onn and Diana nodded their heads in agreement. J'onn and Superman took off, but Diana stood there and watched Batman. She watched as Batman slowly disappeared in the distant. _We will return you to normal, Bruce, I promise you_, Diana vowed. She turned and caught up to the rest.

The night was going to be a long one.


	8. Heat

A/N Don't own the characters so don't sue me.

Many thanks to Lady Isis for the beta, the gal is way to talented to be real!

Also many thanks to DaisyJane for her input, help and guidance. Without your influence I wouldn't of continued writing.

Shout outs to Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, Kyer, and HawkAngel. And the rest of the reviews, thanks for reviewing.

Time to have a little action, enjoy all.

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 8: Heat.**

Batman landed the Batwing in the hanger. J'onn step out from behind the double sliding doors when the air pressure normalized. Batman marched towards him and stopped a few metres away.

"I've cleared up my schedule for the week. Give me the schematics for the multi trans-dimensional mind realigner," he commanded J'onn.

J'onn had dealt with Batman's demanding personality for a while now. He knew the real reason for his emotionless act; Bruce felt that if he allowed anyone in they would get hurt, they always did in his mind. J'onn truly felt sorry for him. The man had everything a human would possibly want: riches, health and from what he read in the daily newspapers a handsome face. He had all that except a loved one to confide in and cherish, and to feel the comfort and love returned.

J'onn shook himself from his revelation and sent Batman the information and plans Henry McCoy had created. He watched as Batman's normally stiff jaw loosened up.

Bruce was slowly processing all the information J'onn had sent him telepathically. He was sorting out the materials he would need and parts he could get from Wayne Tech. Once he had everything sorted out in his mind, he left the hanger bay. J'onn exited a minute before as him as he had other duties to attend to.

Walking down to the power core level he found the room he felt would work best. The large cargo room was nearly empty, but being close to the reactor the room was extremely warm. Bruce looked around and mentally figured out where everything would go. He paced the area he was going to use and judged it to be more then enough room for the machine. Batman turned on his heels and processed to the monitoring womb.

He sat down at a console and started to type up the list of components he would need. Twenty minutes later he sent it off to Wayne Tech and Fox, hoping that they would have the necessary metals and electronic components in stock. It took him several hours to work on the blueprints. Once he felt everything was correct he printed off the list and schematics.

Batman found J'onn in the commissary eating oreos and handed him the blueprints. J'onn looked them over and nodded his head.

"They look to be correct."

Batman took them back with a short nod, then turned and left the room. He made his way back to the Batwing and returned to Gotham. The journey was quick and quiet back down to the Batcave. He was having the stuff he need to build the machine sent to a warehouse outside Gotham. He would be able to load them onto the Batwing there without questions being asked. He rechecked his emails and saw that everything on the list was being sent to the warehouse in the morning.

Alfred came down the stairs and stopped at the bottom step. "Tim and Barbara will look after patrol for the next week," he told him.

Bruce simply nodded his head then said, "I'm going on patrol tonight, the materials I need will not be available until tomorrow morning."

Alfred turned and made his way back up to the manor. Batman checked his utility belt finding everything in order and left for patrol.

He was watching the street below when he felt like someone was watching him. Batman fired off his grappling hook and took to the skies. He landed a few building tops away from his last location and hide in the shadows. He smelt a bad odor in the air, it was a musky toxic smell. It was male but not a normal smelling human male.

Then he saw the huge shadow, Batman's jaw tightened up. It was Bane, what was he doing here?

"Come out... Come out, Batman!" Bane commanded in his deep Spanish accent. Batman slowly stepped out from the shadows and faced his large back.

"What are you doing here, Bane?" he asked him. Bane turned and faced the man he was looking for with a large smile on his face.

"I've heard rumors that Batman is a demon now. I've come to face the demon!" Bane said as he smashed his over large fist in to his other hand. Batman rounded his shoulders and kept his arms under his cape.

The two stared at each other for a few moments. Batman pressed a button on his emergency remote, informing Robin and Batgirl he would need their assistance. It wasn't because he couldn't handle Bane - it was because if he got too angry he might kill him.

Bane then jumped at Batman, Batman rolled under the leaping large man. Bane rolled himself back to his feet and turned around to face him once again. Bane rushed towards him and tried to punch Batman. Batman ducked under the mighty blow and punched Bane in the ribs. He heard a crack and a sudden inhale of breath from Bane.

Bane took a few stepped back and held onto his broken rib. "Impressive, Batman, but that will not save you," he said as he cranked the dial on his belt. Batman heard the ribs reset as Bane got even larger. Bane then rushed at him again. Batman tried to duck the blow but was caught by the neck by Bane's other hand. Bane pinned Batman against a concrete wall.

His smile widen as he had Batman where he wanted him. "I will break you!" Bane growled out as he slammed his fist into Batman's stomach. Bruce whizzed out as Bane's fist connected with his stomach. Bruce felt the anger within him start to raise, he had to focus or Bane could be injured badly or even killed if he allow his anger to take over.

Bane started to punch Batman's head but after only a few punches stopped. "Senor, your skull is a lot tougher then before." Bane told Batman as she shook his hand. Batman grunted as he drew his legs almost to his chest and kicked Bane as hard as he could in his stomach. Bane released his hold onto Batman's neck and took a few steps back to regain his balance.

Batman landed onto his feet and jumped at him. Bane was still trying to regain his balance from mighty kick to the gut, so when Batman came flying towards him with his fists he couldn't do anything to defend himself.

Batman hit Bane under the jaw, the blow sent him flipping backwards. When he landed on his stomach Bane was out cold. Bruce dropped to his knees and trying to control his anger. A very large part of him wanted to rip Bane's spine out. Batman stood back up and a flash of metal extracted from his fist. The long single dagger shined when the light hit it.

Batman stood over Bane's prone body, he was going to do what he wanted to do to Bane.

Robin watched from a building away, Batman stood above Bane's prone body. One of Batman's metal claws were extracted.

"Batman, don't do it!" Robin yelled out from across the roof tops. Batman fell to his knees next to the large unconscious man. Robin was too late as Batman sliced at Bane's body. Robin shot off his grappling hook and flew towards the two men.

He landed next to Batman and hear him say, "It is over, Bane."

Robin thought Batman he had killed Bane. But, he had severed the venom's tub on his neck that started the shrinking process. In a matter of moments Bane was a small skinny man once again. Robin watched as Batman handcuffed Bane and picked him up and threw him over his shoulder.

"I thought you were going to kill him, Batman," Robin sighed as he stepped into line with Batman's brisk walking pace. Batman looked down at his young prodigy, he knew all about what had happened to him.

"I was completely in control, Robin," he told him, then his face softened a little. "Thanks for looking out for me."

Robin's chest expanded by the praise of his mentor.

With Bane locked up and back up in jail, Bruce continued his patrol for the night. Which was almost peaceful except for a few muggings that he and Robin stopped.

* * *

Batman landed the Batwing at the warehouse. The place was almost like an abandoned farm house expect for the large metal building on the property. He opened up the large sliding door and saw the materials he needed were placed neatly near the entrance. Half an hour later he was powering up the Batwing and heading directly up.

He calculated it would take him nearly four days to completely build this machine. If he could get Superman or J'onn to help out they might be able to cut the time down. But he would build most of it himself; he trusted the people on the Watchtower, they were excellent superheroes, but master craftsmen or technicians they were not.

Batman parked his plane in its reserved spot in the Watchtower's hanger. Once out of the cockpit, Flash was standing next to him with a smile on his face.

"So this is the stuff. Need any help?" Flash asked him. Batman thought about that. Flash was quick but sometimes was clumsy.

"Bring just the metal parts down to the adjoining room next to the generator, Flash. I will handle the rest," Batman said to him.

Flash smiled happily and took off, within seconds most of the cargo from the Batwings hold was gone. Batman picked up several of the boxes that were marked electronics and carried them himself. When he got there Flash was inspecting the piece he had carried to the room. Batman placed the boxes off to the side.

"So this machine is going to fix you?" Flash asked him as he stared at the boxes Batman placed on the ground.

"It should."

"Good, I kind of miss the old Batman. I have to run, body always need that extra boost of sugar," Flash said, then zipped off.

He thought about what Flash had said. _Was I that different then before?_ Shaking his head, he got to work.

Batman then started laying out how he was going to arrange the machine. It would have to be as close as possible to the generator to power it. Batman worked on setting up the frame for the machine. For the next six hours Batman had been sweating up a storm. He was tempted to remove the Batsuit, but J'onn showed up. With J'onn's help they managed to build the basic frame of the machine.

"Batman, I think you should rest or at least eat something," J'onn told him.

Batman wiped his mouth for the tenth time in five minutes. He simply nodded his head as the two left the room. The coolness of the hallways made him feel a little better. J'onn sat down as the two of them had a meal in the commissary.

The commissary was empty and quiet, Batman chewed on his meal as J'onn eat a simple bowl of oreos. Batman enjoyed this quick meal with J'onn. He wasn't the talkative sort which suited him perfectly at the moment, there were to many thinks on his mind. J'onn finished chewing on his cookie then asked Batman one simple question.

"How long until you are done with the machine?"

Batman pulled his head away from his tray and quietly chewed then swallowed his food before he spoke. "I'm estimating sixty-seven hours, if everything goes to plan," he said as he scooped up another fork full of food.

J'onn nodded his head and threw another oreo into his mouth.

Bruce didn't mention that he wasn't planning on taking any unnecessary breaks or sleep during that time. If he did slept when he was tired, it would take him five or six days to complete. He shoveled in the last of his food and got up, he moved over to the large fridge and removed six two litre bottles of water from it.

He made his way back to the room he was using to build the machine and continued to work. With the metal framing up he didn't really need anyone else's help. He had been working on the machine for almost 14 hours in total. The sweat in his suit was starting to bother him a lot. He had removed his gloves and cape when he returned and the cowl had joined them less then an hour later.

Not two hours ago he had finally had enough of sweating and removed the top part of the Batsuit and Utility belt. The sweat was dripping off him, he hadn't calculated for the heat and was taking mini breaks to replenish his water levels. The six two liter bottles of water were almost gone now.

Bruce was on his knees working on adding a lead wire to one of the motherboards when he heard the storage rooms doors open. Lucky for him his back was turned to the doorway. He quickly glanced at his watch and noticed it was 4 am in the morning. _Who would be running around the Watchtower at this hour?_ he asked himself.

He jumped up in search of his cowl, but was stopped by a voice that sent shivers down his spine.


	9. Sweat

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Big thanks to Lady Isis for betaing this story. Thanks to DaisyJane also, for her input and help.

Shout outs to Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, iceequeenie263 (Lets see if you were correct :)), HawkAngel, StormyNightengale (soon.. very soon ;)), and Kyer.

Enjoy all. :)

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 9: Sweat.**

Diana had returned from a mission in the Congo. The sweat and dirt of the mission covered most of her body; rescuing a group of trapped miners wasn't a enjoyable mission. She had a quick shower and slipped into some fluffy jogging pants and simple t-shirt. She knew that Bruce was hard at work down near the power core, so she decided to see how he was doing since she was to wound up to sleep at the moment.

The Watchtower was dark and quiet as she walked along the corridors, and she made a quick stop off at the commissary to grab a iced mocha. She idly sipped her mocha through the straw as she made her way down to the lower levels. The doors were shut to the room Bruce was occupying. Diana pressed a button on the console near the doorway, the door hissed open as she walked into the room. The room was hot but not unbearable to her as she grew up on a hot and humid tropical Island.

The sight of a half-naked Bruce, crouched over working on the machine, however, took her breath away. He jumped up from his crouching position and was searching for something.

Diana finally found her tongue. "It's just me, Bruce."

His frantic movements stopped, Diana slowly walked towards him. The closer she got the warmer the room felt to her. His upper torso was covered in sweat and his muscles twitched when ever he moved. The man didn't have one ounce of fat on his body, he was built like a Greek god, Diana mused to herself.

Once Diana was close enough she noticed all the scars on his body. Knife and bullet wounds covered his upper torso, his body was a tapestry of his battles. He finally turned and looked at her, Diana's subconsciously licked her lips. The man was perfect in her eyes, a true warrior for the modern times, reborn. His wide, powerful chest, glistening with sweat drew her a step closer to him.

"What do you want, Diana?" Bruce asked her harshly as he wiped away some sweat with a cloth.

Diana continued to stare at his midsection, almost drooling with desire. He watched as Diana pulled a few wet strands of hair behind her ear, but continued to play with their ends. She hadn't looked once up at his face. He felt for a moment like he was a well done steak to a starving woman. Her eyes were half closed and her breathing was a little quicker.

"Diana!" he growled, she finally looked up and locked eyes with his.

He could see the desire in them, her lips looked a little more puffy then normal and her cheeks had a tiny pink glow to them. Her normally bright blue eyes had a glistening effect to them, her pupils where large and inviting. His new sense of smell picked up her intoxicating scent of jasmine and something else. Something that both scared and excited him.

"I was just checking up on you, to see how you were doing." Diana's usually lovely voice was a little more huskier then normal.

_Is the room getting warmer?_ he thought to himself. The two were alone in this hot and humid room, he felt his excitement level start to rise. The two continued to stare at each other, not knowing what to say next.

"I... I was just working on some of the electronics," he horsely said.

Diana simply nodded her head as she took another step closer to him. He felt his resolve slowly start to leave him. _She is a teammate, nothing more,_ he repeatedly told himself, trying to regain his sense of purpose.

Diana sucked on the straw of her iced mocha, Bruce just stared at her lips as they puffed out. He felt his control slipping. _Does she know how sexy her actions were just now?_ he thought to himself. _No_ - she was an sweet and innocent person by nature.

Diana pulled the straw out from her mouth and asked him, "How does it work?"

Bruce's mind finally had something else to focus on instead of her very inviting luscious lips, he started to explain what the machine should do.

Diana nodded her head, listening to his explanation, she then spoke once more. "Why can't J'onn or this Charles Xavier break the link? They are both telepaths?"

Bruce wiped his face once again as the sweat was getting into his eyes. "From what J'onn and I have talked about privately, and from what Charles told him in the link up, it is not natural. It is an artificially created dimensional link, this device should shut down the link if everything goes correctly," he sighed.

Diana frowned for a moment then asked, "What happens if this does not work?"

Bruce closed his eyes for a moment in deep thought. He had a few theories on what would happen to him, J'onn had voiced his concerns also.

"Well if it doesn't stop the link, J'onn and Charles feel that the link will grow to a point where Logan and I will be merge into one mind, but occupying both dimensions at the same time."

Bruce exhaled deeply, that thought scared him more then anything else. His mind was his greatest tool, if he was merged with this other person he wouldn't be himself. Also he worried that they might perceiving both realities at the same time because of the link. Receiving sights, sounds and feelings from two totally different dimensions at the same time would be very confusing to anyone.

Diana saw fear on his face as he thought about what he had told her. Diana placed a hand on his shoulder bringing him out from his thoughts. "We will stop this, Bruce," she told him confidently.

Bruce stared into her bright blue eyes and felt the depressing thoughts slip away. Her simple gesture of kindness made him feel a whole lot better. But the cool and soft hand on his hot and sweaty shoulder caused another feeling to boil to the surface.

Diana saw his eyes slowly turn from sadness to something that caused a shiver to run down her spine. His eyes bore into hers with a passion she had not seen before. Wait, she had seen that look before. When they had their moment in the woods the other day, he placed his hand onto hers.

It felt like electricity had run up her arm, as he slowly rubbed her hand and fingers against his. He suddenly released her, and grabbed her shoulders. With a quick pull she was nose to nose with him. She felt his breath on her lips, his eyes bore into her very soul it seemed to her. Diana closed her eyes and brought her lips to his.

The kiss started out cautious and slow, then gradually built up in intensity. She felt one of his rough hands slowly run down her back. The other went to her neck, pulling her closer to him. He pulled away from her lips and started to kiss along her jaw bone. He slowly descended down to her neck. Diana's hand ran through his slick sweaty hair, and he found a sensitive area on her neck, causing a moan to escape her lips as she gripped a handful of his hair.

The only sound in the room was from the heated exchange and their heavy breathing. Suddenly a voice in both their minds forced the two apart.

_Sorry to interrupt_, J'onn spoke to them both. Diana and Bruce slowly peeled themselves away from each other, but the two warriors continued to stare at each other with lustful eyes.

_Superman needs some assistance in Metropolis,_ J'onn told them.

Diana frowned, then replied back to the Martian in her mind. _I will go, will be ready in a minute, _she told him.

Diana slowly walked backwards towards the door as she continued to stare into his intoxicating eyes. Once she was out the door, she walked a few steps then rested her head against the cool steel wall for a moment. If J'onn hadn't interrupted them she didn't know how far she would of allowed their heated exchange to go. She was very conflicted inside; her Amazon teachings told her not to ever be alone with that man again. But a feeling deep within her was almost daring her to return to him. Diana shook her head and marched off to help Superman, she didn't have the time or knowledge to figure out what to do.

The only thing she knew at the moment was to stay as far away from him as possible. For now.

Bruce closed his eyes and tried to reign in his overpowering emotions. _Stop doing this, you animal,_ he growled at himself. _She is a trusted colleague_.

But another voice inside him laughed. _Sure she is, one that you find totally unattractive,_ the voice taunted him. Sure he found her attractive, a near sightless man would. But there was something else that pulled him towards her. Well more then one thing he found very attractive, her passionate and loving spirit. Her dedication to her mission and to protecting the innocent.

They were much the same but on different sides of the coin. She went headfirst into a problem where he stood back and analyzed it. She showed compassion to an enemy when they were down, whereas he did not and could not. She flourished in the light, whereas he thrived in the dark.

Shaking his head he returned to building the machine. Fixing problems always forced him to forget about his human desires, and she was one that he was having the most difficult time forgetting about.

* * *

Elsewhere, in a deep underground bunker, a group of technicians were watching the displays. A man in a white lab coat entered the large monitoring room. He strolled over to a free console and started to read the readings on one of the monitors as he wrote down what was on the screen. The phone mounted on the console he was at lit up as it rang, and he picked up the phone.

"Trask here," the man said into the receiver. His brow furrowed as he listened to the other end.

"The master molder is almost completed. It will be operational soon," the man said with irritation. He listened to the other man for a few more moments.

"I didn't cross dimensions just to get lectured by you!" the man became irate. He continued to listen to him once again.

"You're funding this, but it's my baby. You continue to harass me and the deal is off." His tightened jaw slowly relaxed as he listen to the other man.

"Good, we have an understanding; you let me do my thing and you will have more robots then you can count in a few weeks. I will talk to you later," Trask said as he slammed the phone down. He walked away muttering to himself.

The technicians in the room had stopped working as they watched their boss argue with someone on the phone. After he'd slammed it down they returned back to work, trying to avoid their angry boss.

* * *

Hank McCoy entered the room where Charles Xavier was in. The furry beast looked upset as he took a seat across from the wheelchair-bound man. Charles raised an eyebrow, he felt the upsetting thoughts pour off Hank.

"Something bothering you, Hank?"

_Yes Logan and Scott are at each others' throats again!_ Hank thought._ Well, Scott is, Logan is just standing there pushing Scott's buttons._

Hank sighed. "Yes, Logan almost had Scott ready to kill him. I had to stop Scott before he blasted a hole into Logan," Hank said as he started to pour himself a cup of tea. Charles had felt the anger coming from somewhere but didn't focus on it too much because of all the other thoughts coming from the same area. Which meant he would not have to worry because the other minds there would stop any fight that might start up.

Hank took a sip of his tea. "Logan just stood there talking about Jean, Scott told him to shut up but he continued using every piece of dirt he could use against Scott." Hank placed his tea cup down on the table.

"Scott got right into Logan's face and was screaming at him. Logan just stood there with a smirk on his lips the whole time." Hank rubbed his nose for a moment.

"Logan didn't try anything?" Charles asked in amazement.

Hank shook his head slowly. "He has been doing that a lot lately, he almost had me ready to punch him a few days ago," Hank exhaled deeply.

"It's that other personality coming out. When I linked minds with J'onn I received a lot of information about their universe. Bruce has an ability to get under almost everyone's skin back in his universe," Charles told him.

"I will be relieved when this is over. An in-your-face aggressive Logan is ten times better then a know-it-all jackass Logan that stands there smirking at you," Hank uttered.

"How is the device coming along?" Charles asked, deciding that changing the subject was for the best.

"We are running some tests on it. The only good thing about this whole situation is Logan knows quit a bit about electronics now," Hank said with a bit of pride in his voice.

"I hope this device of yours works. I have a feeling that we only have a week at most before the link forces both minds to merge," Charles said as Hank drank some more tea.

"Logan is testing out the machine as we speak, it's basically done," Hank said. Charles placed his cup down and pulled his wheelchair away from the table. Hank raised a hairy eyebrow at his actions.

"Where are you off to?" Hank asked him.

"I'm going to talk to Logan about his behavior," Charles said as he left the room.

Hank picked up his tea cup and said, "Wish you luck," before he took a sip.

Charles replied back by telepathy, _Thank You,_ causing Hank to chuckle.


	10. Completed

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many Thanks to Lady Isis for the best. Isis is a betaing machine, I swear! Hehehe

Special thanks to DaisyJane, for her help and input on this story and my other previous ones. I would of never made it this far in my writing with out her encouragement. :)

This chapter gave me the worst problems then almost any other I've ever written. Just could not get my writing flow going. Hopefully it sounds okay to everyone else.

Read and enjoy all. :)

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 10: Completed.**

Bruce worked almost nonstop, hooking up the electronics to the frame of the machine for the next three days. During those three days everyone except Diana had stopped by to see how the machine was coming along. It was a relief, but also it hurt him that she seem to be avoiding him. He couldn't dwell on that, though, because he need to focus on the machine.

Clark was the first to drop in to see how it was going. "How's it coming along, Bruce?" the Man of Steel asked him. Batman just had his cowl and suit pants on as he turned and looked at the large Kryptonian.

"Just started hooking up the motherboards and wiring them," Bruce replied in his rough dry voice.

Clark had noticed Bruce sweating like he never had seen before; the room was warm but to his physiology the heat was nothing. "How about you let me do some of that?" he offered, knowing his offer would be turned down the moment he suggested it.

"I'll handle it," came the clipped reply. Clark just rolled his eyes. "Go get my lightweight batsuit back in the Cave," Bruce ordered.

Clark almost laughed at his demand, but was used to his abrasive behavior. "Only if you say please."

Bruce turned his head and almost growled out at him. He gave Clark the batglare as Clark blankly stared back at him. Bruce, not wanting to continue this useless stare down because he frankly didn't have the time, finally broke.

"Please," he grunted out.

Clark smiled and nodded his head as he turned and left the room felling very satisfied with himself for getting Batman to say _please_.

Bruce turned his attention back to the motherboard he was working on. _Damn boyscout had to make me say that,_ Bruce muttered to himself angrily.

The heat in the room was making the work a lot more difficult. His fingers where dripping with sweat and trying to push or pull wires into place was becoming a task in its self.

Clark returned an hour later with Bruce's lightweight cotton batsuit. It was almost like a pair of black pajamas. It helped a lot compared to his state of the art suit that didn't breathe like the simple cotton suit did. He would look into creating a cooling system in the next Batsuit upgrade.

The heat was slowly his progress down, with the increase need of water intake Bruce was forced to visit the bathroom a lot more then normal. During his breaks he would contact Alfred to find out about Gotham's current status. Alfred would inform him each and every time that Gotham was save and secure.

The Flash waltzed in the room eating an apple. He stared at what Bruce was doing, then sniffed deeply. "Pee-U, you stink Bats." Flash said with a mouthful of apple.

Bruce gripped the screwdriver tighter but ignored Flash's comment. Flash walked over and stood over Bruce's shoulder looking at what he was doing and chewing with his mouth open. Bits of apple fell onto Bruce's shoulder.

"I could have this done in no time," Flash bragged, as he spat tiny apple pieces and juice on him.

Bruce stood up and turned and faced the scarlet speedster. "Out," he growled threateningly.

Flash swallowed the rest of the apple still in his mouth and grinned. "J'onn wants an update on your status," he said.

Bruce's left eye twitched before he exploded. "Out now, Flash, before I turn you into a shiskabob!" he yelled.

Flash blinked for a moment until Bruce extracted his Adamantium claws, and within a millisecond Flash was at the door. His body was vibrating as he waited for them to open. Once he was out of the room Bruce retracted the claws and grabbed a clean dry towel, and wiped away the mess Flash left on his suit.

After staying awake for nearly 50 hours with almost nonstop working on the machine Bruce took a 3 hour power nap to recharge his batteries. During that time J'onn had Clark do an almost atomic level scan of the wiring to see if it was all connected correctly. It took Clark almost 40 minutes to confirm that everything looked correct from the diagrams he held in his hands.

* * *

Bruce stood up after connecting the last computer to the machine and ran a diagnostic program to see if all the wires were connected right. The program would take a few hours if everything was connected correctly. Bruce suited up in the sweat drenched regular Batsuit and took the very wet and smelly lightweight suit with him. He was going to take a few hours to rest but first he wanted J'onn to keep an eye on the program from the Watchtower monitor room. The laptop he was using for the diagnostic software was also linked to the Watchtower's network.

He walked into the monitor room and saw J'onn and Diana. He felt a little self-conscious of his sweaty and smelly self. "J'onn, I have a diagnostic program running on the machine. I'm going to get some rest."

J'onn and Diana turned and looked at Bruce as he told them what he was doing. Diana felt like her face was heating up, looking at the man that had been haunting her imagination and dreams as of late. J'onn nodded his head as Diana watched him exit the room. She had been talking to J'onn about her fears of getting close to a certain brooding male. Batman turned and left the two as he had pressing matters to attend - like a soft mattress to lay on.

Once the door closed J'onn started talking again. "Diana, you are a female and its normal to be attracted to the opposite sex." Diana nodded her head as she continued to stare at the closed door. She slowly turned to look at J'onn, and he felt the confusion and excitement pour off her.

"I know you're correct, J'onn, but I've been raised to distrust and loathe males, but I'm seeing that not all males are evil and vile." She sighed. "A part of me wants to let go of my beliefs and experience what it's like to be with a man. But my upbringing has me scared and confused," Diana frowned.

J'onn nodded his head and gave her a gentle smile. "Don't rush yourself, Diana, you're still new to this male/female interaction. Nature will run its course," J'onn said as he returned his attention back to a bank of monitors.

Diana rested her head against her palms as she lend on the console. She blew a hair out of her eye and thought over J'onn words, maybe she was over thinking what had happened twice now with Bruce. She should just let it run its course.

Bruce walked to his personal quarters; unlike the rest he never used his quarters to sleep. As he walked to his quarters he thought about Diana for the ten millionth time in the last four days. Was it this new personality that was being more forward with her? What was holding him back? He knew there were two things holding him back - _first, office romances never work out in the end, well most of them don't,_ he corrected himself.

The second and biggest thing that held him back from actually asking her out was her naive nature. She was from a culture that hadn't dealt with males in thousands of years, and before that the men they interacted with were barbaric and cruel. _I'm protecting her from myself,_ he thought. He mentally sighed; that was bullshit if he'd ever heard it. He was scared to allow himself any love or comfort.

He walked into his room and removed his batsuit, then lay on his twin sized bed. He closed his eyes, but sleep wouldn't come, and the reason was his continued debate with himself about Diana. Sleep finally came after his body couldn't handle the stress of being up for over two days straight without a break.

* * *

Trask was rubbing the bridge of his nose as he looked at the readout. He was trying to add the technology that his benefactor had required. The problem was it worked from some new green element that he had never see or heard of before.

It's properties were almost alien to him, but used correctly could power the giant robots for hundred of years. The problem he was currently having was adapting it to his technology. Its power wasn't right for the master CPU he designed for the robots. It was causing the chip to erase it self, no matter what he did to shield it from it. Just another problem that had been plaguing him.

Add to it his benefactor's continued harassment of him daily, and Bolivar Trask was ready to quiet and go back to his own universe. That is until he looked at the display readings and smiled.

* * *

J'onn knocked on Batman's private quarters door. Less then ten seconds later a tired and rough voice replied. "Give me a minute," Bruce said as he quickly threw on his suit. He opened the door and the large green Martian was standing there.

"The diagnostic software came back, everything is working within the expected parameters," J'onn's monotone voice told him.

Bruce nodded. "Give me ten minutes to shower and I will be down," Batman said as he closed the door. Bruce was undressed and in the shower in a under a minute. The hot water was soothing to his tired and aching muscles. He quickly shaved and was in his spare batsuit - the one that didn't smell like a well-used jock strap.

He proceeded to the utility room that housed the machine. When he entered J'onn, Superman and Green Lantern were there. He nodded at the group as he moved over and to the console. Bruce started typing commands into it when J'onn spoke up.

"Batman we need to contact the other side first." Bruce stopped his typing and sighed mentally to himself. _J'onn's correct, how could I have forgotten that?_ Bruce thought. Bruce removed his glove and held out his hand to J'onn. J'onn reached out and took his hand within his. He eyes closed as he entered Bruce's mind. It only took a few moments before he was in contact with Logan.

"Logan, it's J'onn, is Charles around?" he asked him. It took a few moments before Logan replied back.

"Yeah, he's here."

Charles appeared in front of J'onn with his custom smile on his face. "So have you completed the machine?" Charles asked him.

J'onn nodded. "Yes, that is why I'm contacting you. We are ready to proceed," J'onn told him.

Charles frowned for a moment then said, "Hank has recalibrated the focal point to 3.1415926535, you will have to do the same," Charles said.

J'onn nodded and repeated the number, to which Charles smiled and said, "Correct. I hope this works. When will you be ready?"

"Bruce should be able to change whatever is needed in a few minutes. How about we start up the process in ten minutes on both sides?" J'onn asked him.

"Perfect. If this doesn't work contact me again and let's see if we can try again. Hank thinks he might have another way to do it if this doesn't work," Charles said as he slowly faded away,

J'onn exited the link. "They said to recalibrate the focal point to 3.1415926535," J'onn told Bruce.

Bruce went over to the machine and typed into the machine. "It's done," he said.

J'onn then said, "They will be starting up their machine in ten minutes."

Bruce nodded and looked over to the seat that was built into the machine. That's where he would have to sit and see if the machine would be able to cancel out the link between he and Logan.

Bruce powered the system up and did some last checks before he turned control of the device over to Clark.

"Listen, Superman, only terminate the power if I'm on fire," Batman said. He wasn't going to allow a little pain to stop this process. Clark looked at him apprehensively but nodded his head; if anyone knew what they were doing it was this man.

Bruce took his seat and allowed J'onn to connect the wires leads to his brain. After that was done the room was quiet expect for the heat exchange system and the machine powering up. The minute was at hand, J'onn nodded his head at Clark as Clark turned and looked at Bruce. Bruce gave the Kryptonian a reassuring nod, then indicated for him to press the button.

Bruce felt nothing for close to a minute before it felt like someone had knocked him out. He was facing an area void of anything except a glowing white light in front of him a shadowy figure slowly merged from the light. Bruce for a moment thought he was dead, he had read that people who had come back from the dead talked about a white light. The figure slowly got close enough for him to almost see his face, then the other person spoke out in a rough voice.

"About time we met face to face... BUB!"


	11. Face to Face

A/N: Don't own the characters so don't sue.

Thanks to Lady Isis for the Beta. Also Thanks to DaisyJane for her input and help also.

Shout outs to Hepburn, KittyBatman, iceequeenie263 (Lets see if Bruce does become anger free), HawkAngel (Your sexiness is here finally!) and EroSlackerMicha (finally the meeting of the minds)

Read and enjoy all. :)

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 11: Face to Face.**

"Logan," Bruce nearly whispered, to which Logan smiled and nodded his head.

"So where are we?" Bruce asked him, a little confused.

Logan shrugged his shoulders. "Beats the hell out of me. Once second I'm staring at fur face and the next I'm here in limbo. I saw you appear just now," Logan said as he eyed Bruce up, Bruce stared back at the scruffy looking character.

"Well I guess I should thank you for making me taller. Now Scott can't stare down at me like he is some big shot," Logan said. Bruce's brow raised in question but Logan just smiled a toothy grin at him.

"Did Hank tell you how this would work?" Bruce asked Logan, to which Logan shook his head.

"No, I thought it would just disrupt the link... not actually make it possible for us to speak," Logan said as he rubbed his scruffy chin and Bruce gestured yes with his head. "So I guess we just stand here?" Logan asked him.

"I guess," Bruce said as he now shrugged his shoulders. Logan then started to pace in front of Bruce.

Bruce watched him for a few moments then asked, "You don't like the unknown either?"

Logan just grunted and shook his head. "I've had to deal with the unknown for most of my life." Logan stopped pacing and stood in front of Bruce. "So you're some kind of hero in your universe. Hank said you don't have any powers."

"Not until now," Bruce said as he extended his claws.

Logan looked at them and smiled as his also extended. "Can I test yours out?" Logan asked him with a gleam in his eye.

"Okay."

Bruce held out his claws at arms' length as Logan swung his at Bruce's. The clank of metal on metal could be heard, but the claws were not damaged. Logan's smile grew larger.

"Adamantium. Got to love it," Logan said with a full smile on his lips.

"Expect for the process of having it grafted to your bones," Bruce said soberly as he remembered the dreams of the other man. Wolverine's smile faded away when Bruce reminded him of it.

Suddenly the void they were in started to flash and spark. Bruce and Logan looked at each other, they knew this was the end of there conversation and possibly the link that connected them.

"Well bub..." Logan said as he gave him a two finger salute, "... see yuh in the funny pages." He started to fade away. Bruce gave him a nodded and a wave as they both started to fade.

Bruce awoke to Clark's face hovering a few centimeters away from his. Clark's blue eyes suddenly had a relieved look in them. Bruce felt like his head was going to explode but the pain vanished almost as fast as it happened. He found himself laying on the floor with Clark kneeling next to him.

"You okay Br... Batman?" Clark asked with concern. Bruce gave Clark a simple smirk, Clark smiled and stood back up allowing Bruce the space to pull himself up. Once on his feet Bruce asked.

"What happened?"

J'onn spoke up "Your consciousness left Batman, you fell out of the chair... you were clinically dead for one minute."

Bruce adsorbed that information, then asked J'onn, "Is the link broken?" J'onn's eyes lit up as he entered Bruce's mind.

He broke away with a smile on his face then nodded his head. Bruce felt relieved to finally not have to worry about being replaced by a hybrid of himself and Logan's mind, or having to worry about the possibility of killing someone. Bruce started walking towards the door but Clark grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"We would like to do an MRI to make sure there are no lasting effects," Clark said in a calm voice. Bruce looked at Clark's hand on his shoulder then back up to his face.

"Alright, but make it quick... I want to get back to Gotham," Bruce said. They all left the room to go to the infirmary.

J'onn ran some blood tests and did a few scans of his body and looked a little shocked at the results.

"You still have the meta healing gene and metal skeleton and claws Batman," J'onn told him. Bruce had a feeling he still had it - headaches just don't disappear.

Bruce pulled himself up and off of the medical bed. "Any lasting ill-effects, J'onn?" Bruce asked. J'onn looked at the displays on the wall then shook his head no.

"I'm going back to Gotham," Bruce said briskly as he walked out of the room.

John watched Batman leave the room then spoke up. "Everything seems back to normal."

"Yes, other than Batman now having meta powers," J'onn stated.

Clark looked the window at the dark vastness of space. He felt a little relieved at that; for years Clark had felt bad for Bruce. Not bad, but worried was more like it, worried that he would get himself killed by some punk with a lucky shot. With his healing powers it was one less worry for Superman.

-------------

Batman parked the Batwing in the cave and exited the craft. As he descended the stairs of the airplane he smelled jasmine. _What is she doing here?_ he asked himself. Diana was sitting at the chair in front of his massive computer display. She had one leg crossed over the other; Bruce noticed right away that she wasn't in her normal uniform. She was dressed casually in a light summer dress, her face was stoic as he walked towards her.

"Princess."

Diana then smiled as her eyes seemed to become flirtatious. "Bruce," she answered back.

He rolled his eyes behind his cowl as he stopped in front of her and stood staring down at her beautiful face that held that mischievous smile. "Diana, what are you doing here?" he finally asked her.

Diana uncrossed her legs and stood up. "I've come to a decision. You and I are now courting," she told him, matter-of-fact.

Bruce cocked his head to the side. "Really?"

Diana raised one of her perfect eyebrows then said. "Yes, we are."

Bruce pulled off his cowl and placed it on the computer console. "So I have no say in this?" he asked, as he started to lose himself within her eyes.

Diana smiled brightly. "You do, but the answer better be yes!" she told him firmly with her hip cocked to one side.

Bruce had a smirk on his face as Diana smiled back at him. "So how does one court an Amazon?" Bruce said as he placed a hand on her hip.

Diana moved a little closer towards him as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Well the male is always subservient to the female," she grinned at him.

Bruce put his other hand on her hip. "I see. Is that all?" he asked as he stared into her beautiful eyes. The light in the cave brought out a different color to them.

"No. He has to prove his worth also." Diana now had a smirk on her lips.

Bruce sighed. "How does one do that, my Princess?" his deep baritone voice asked her. It was Diana's time to sigh as she listened to his voice.

"Well for starters a kiss would be in order," Diana's eyes sparkled, "To see if he was worthy."

Bruce grinned as he slowly moved his lips towards hers. The kiss was gentle and caring, but Diana pulled away from the kiss.

"That was okay for a start," she said nonchalant. Bruce's brow raised in challenge as he gave her a hurt expression, Diana giggled.

"I better fix that then," Bruce growled out as he attacked her lips with vigor. Diana wrapped her arms around his neck and moaned into his mouth. This time Bruce pulled away and stared at her half closed eyes.

Diana licked her lips and sighed. "Much better," Bruce chuckled out loudly.

"How else do I prove myself worthy?" he asked her as he rested his forehead against hers.

Diana ran her hands along his neck. "Since we are not on Themyscira and there are no hundred warriors to run the gauntlet..."

Bruce stiffened up the thought of fighting a hundred Amazon warriors. Diana allowed him that thought for a few more moments then giggled once again. _What is with me?_ Diana thought to herself, _I'm never the giggly type._

"Since we are not on Themyscira you will have to give me one hundred more kisses," Diana said with a infectious smile.

Bruce felt himself become a little giggly as he started his countdown of kisses.


	12. Man Made

A/N Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Special thanks to Lady Isis for the beta. And many thanks to DaisyJane for her input, help and suggestions on this story.

Shout outs to Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, HawkAngel, EroSlackerMicha, iceequeenie263, JasonTKD, Elpiza and Annara Ren.

Read and enjoy all. :)

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 12: Man Made**.

Bruce and Diana were still in the Cave, enjoying each others' embrace. He was just about to give her her tenth kiss of the one hundred he owed her when they both got a communication from Clark.

"Need everyone in San Antonio asap, I'm under attack by giant robots like the ones in Metropolis!" Superman grunted. He was in the middle of battling five of the damn things. Bruce and Diana pulled away from each other, Bruce grabbing his cowl and putting a hand to his ear.

"Be there in fifteen minutes," he said, then looked at Diana. "Come with me in the Batwing, Diana."

(A/N Start of Unbetaed section.)

Diana thought it over for a millisecond; her top speed with Mach 3 but the Batwing could achieve Mach 5 with the new ram jet. Diana nodded her head then spun around in a circle. The Summer dress disappeared and was replaced by her Wonder Woman armor.

Bruce stood there staring at Diana as she pulled a few strains of hair out of her face. She looked back at him and saw what only close friends of Bruce Wayne would call confusion on his face.

"What?" Diana asked him. Bruce's faced turned from confusion to a mild lust filled smirk.

"Will you be changing in lingerie like that also?" he leered at Diana. Diana looked at him with a puzzled expression until it dawned on her. She gave him the royal princess glare then slapped him playfully on his shoulder.

"Only if your a good little knight." she teased him back. The Batwing had finished powering up during there exchange. Diana wrapped her arms into his and flew him to the plane.

"We have a friend to save Romeo." she told him, Bruce smiled back at her as they got into the plane.

(A/N End of Unbetaed section.)

Once high enough Batman engaged the new engines as they felt the push of acceleration as they moved from Mach 2 to Mach 5 in under a minute. Bruce maintained maximum speed to get there as quick as possible.

"Diana," Bruce said over their communicators.

"Yes, Bruce?" she replied.

"I want to keep our relationship a secret."

It surprised her that he would say this - and it wasn't a nice surprise either. "What?"

"I want to keep it a secret," he repeated.

Diana felt herself get angry. "Are you embarrassed of it?" she nearly growled out.

"No! It's just I don't want it to effect our working relationship," he said.

"What are you saying?" she asked him, prompting him to explain further.

"If I'm in danger, don't put yourself in harms way," he told her.

Diana rolled her eyes. "Okay, as long as you don't do it either. Remember the last time we faced these robots," she reminded him.

Bruce closed his eyes and imagined Diana in harm's way. He wouldn't allowed that to happen - so he lied to her. "Okay."

Diana's eyes turned to slits. "Don't lie to me, Bruce."

He sighed. "Roger."

"Also I understand we have to keep this a low profile relationship, Bruce. If people put Bruce Wayne and Wonder Woman together they will figure out your secret identity," Diana said.

Bruce had to agree with her; he had wanted to release news of their relationship at first, but had decided against it for now. But since she brought it up he was glad she did instead. He smiled - the woman was incredible. It was like she knew what he was about to say or do.

Bruce powered off the engines and dropped down from 60,000 feet, the descent was quick.

"Diana, I'm going to open the canopy so you can get to Superman quicker," he said.

"Roger."

At 5,000 feet he pressed the button to the sliding canopy, and the air pressure and speed blasted him in the face. Once he saw Diana fly off he closed the canopy. With a push forward on the control stick the jet nosed dived behind her. He noticed five massive robots in formation in front of a tired looking Superman. Bruce hit the after burners and the jet screamed by Diana.

He activated the Batwings weapons systems and fired off his full payload of missiles at the group of robots. Once they were speeding off towards there destination he reopened the canopy and did a 180 roll of the aircraft. He unbuckled himself and fell from the plane. He pressed a button on his belt and the plane rolled back over and took off away from the fight. The missiles hit there targets but after the smoke cleared he saw the robots had not even been scratched.

Within a thousand feet before he hit the ground he enabled his cape to glide down safely. The rest of the Justice League was ready to engage the robots. Batman landed on a five story tall building and hit his communicator.

"Status?"

Clark replied tiredly "I've been fighting them for twenty minutes and haven't been able to land a decent hit on them," he breathed heavily.

"Hawkgirl, Flash and J'onn distract the other four while Diana, Superman, and Green Lantern attack the farthest one."

Everyone nodded their heads and did as told. Batman pulled out a pair of binoculars and watched. Once Diana, Superman and Green Lantern started to attack the farthest one two moved off to help their slower comrade.

"Superman, make it quick you have company coming," Batman said.

Superman smashed into the chest of the robot and managed to puncture its armor, within ten seconds the giant robot exploded from its chest and started to fall backwards. Superman flew out safely.

The two finally got close enough and engaged the three that managed to take down their comrade. Diana and GL engaged the two while Superman built up enough speed to take one of them out. He once again was able to penetrate the metal chest and take it out. They made quick work of the remaining robots now that Superman could get enough speed to hit them without being hit by laser fire.

Batman made his way towards one of the fallen robots and entered the hole Clark had made. He looked around the robot and found what he was looking for. His face fell when he pulled the head sized processor from the wall. The CPU was glowing green. He took it outside of the robot and walked over to Superman.

He watched as Clark suddenly started to fall to one knee. He stopped ten feet away and took a few steps back. Everyone rushed over to Superman's side in worry.

"He is fine - it's the robots. They have Kryptonite built into them," Batman said as he took a few more steps backwards.

Superman finally managed to lift himself back up. He sort of had a feeling they had Kryptonite because every time he entered the robots he felt his strength weaken.

"GL, I need for you to collect all the kryptonite and bring it to the watchtower. J'onn and I have to run some tests on it and a few other pieces I found," Batman said as GL took off to complete his task.

Bruce walked away and pressed a button in his belt. The batwing flew overhead and landed near him. He pressed a series of buttons and a hatchway opened on the side. He placed the large piece of Kryptonite in the hold and closed the door.

Diana landed next to him. "Are you going back to the Watchtower?" she asked him.

Bruce nodded his head. "Need a ride?" he asked her.

Diana smiled and wrapped her arms around him as she lifted the both of them into the air. The canopy opened as she placed him in his seat and she took the one behind him.

* * *

Trask was watching the monitors that displayed the battle of his robots against the Justice League. They managed to hold Superman off but when his fellow Justice League members showed up they made fast work of them.

His new CPU's where holding up fine - better then fine; they were working perfectly now. The phone rang next to him. Bolivar reached over and picked up the phone as he rubbed his nose.

"Trask here." He knew who was calling before he even picked up the receiver.

"I know they didn't kill him." He said back into the phone. He closed his eyes and listened to the other person.

"Just have to send more next time."

"I know they are not cheap, when I first created them they were not built to deal with this demi-god you call Superman."

"Just have the supplies sent." Bolivar closed his eyes and pulled the phone away from his ear. The other person's voice could be heard as they were screaming.

Bolivar spoke once again into the phone. "Fine I quit, I'm going to return home," he threatened into the receiver. He smiled when he heard the other person's tone change.

"Then the supplies will be here within the week?" He smirked as he got the answer he wanted, and placed the phone back on the receiver.

* * *

Bruce and J'onn were looking at the pieces of Kryptonite and other pieces Bruce took from the robots. The two were in a large lab examining them.

"Batman, this piece is vibrating at a different frequency than normal matter," J'onn said as he turned and looked over a Batman.

Batman straightened up at what J'onn told him. "What?" he asked. He walked over to the display and looked at the read out. "It looks like the same frequency Hank wanted us to set the machine to," Batman said.

J'onn nodded his head in agreement. Bruce wondered how a piece of technology from the other universe had gotten here. But he still felt the Kryptonite had something to add to the mystery. He returned back to the microscope he was looking at and peered into the lens.

He growled a few minutes later as J'onn was still looking at different pieces they collected to see if any other parts had a different frequency like the piece before.

"Something wrong?" J'onn asked him.

Bruce's mouth had tightened. "Yes. This isn't real Kryptonite. It's man-made," he said.

J'onn's face had a look shocked on it at what Batman had said.

"Contact everyone. We need to have a meeting right away," Batman said as J'onn's eyes began glowing, contacting the others.


	13. Stealth mission

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Thanks to Lady Isis for the beta, and many thanks to DaisyJane for her input and help.

And as always thanks to the reviews.I had planned on ending the story after Batman broke the link, but it was one reviewer that got me to thinking about continuing the story. So remember reviews sometimes do change the course of a story. ;)

Shout outs to Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, Elpiza, iceequeenie263, HawkAngel, and rachyzord.

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 12: Stealth mission.**

Batman and J'onn waited for everyone to show up. Diana and Hawkgirl entered together, Hawkgirl gave Bruce a smirk as Diana simply nodded her head trying to act like they normally did. Batman gave Hawkgirl a funny look. He knew she would be able to figure it out.

Superman and Green Lantern entered the room a few minutes later with Flash, unusually, trailing them. As everyone took their seats Batman and J'onn stood in front of a large display.

"We have found some disheartening information about the robots," J'onn said.

Everyone looked at the display as it showed two line waves on it. J'onn pointed at one of the lines. "This is the frequency of our matter in this universe," he said, then pointed at the other. "This one is shows matter that is vibrating slightly differently then ours. Batman and I found some of the metal in the robots to be from another universe."

Everyone in the room was silent.

Batman spoke up now. "We know the machines are being powered by Kryptonite." Superman nodded. "But it's not natural. It's artificial."

Superman's jaw tightened up at this news. "So you're saying they could have a lot of it?" he asked as his fists tightened up.

Batman nodded. "Also..." Batman continued before Superman said anything else, "the robots are being mass-produced." J'onn turned and looked at Batman in shock.

"How could you tell?" J'onn asked him.

"The robots are segmented and all their parts measure the exact same dimensions. They are not being created one at a time," Batman stated.

John banged his fist against the table. "So we have to find this manufacturing plant and destroy it," he hissed.

"Already found it. It's located in near Salta, Argentina. About twenty miles outside of the city," Batman said.

Superman stood up, then said. "Then let's go destroy it."

Batman placed a hand on his shoulder. Superman turned a cold eye on Batman. "Sorry, Superman, but this is our mission. You will have to stay up here."

Superman brushed off Batman's hand. "Like hell I'm not going," he growled out.

Batman held up one finger. "One - there most likely is going to be a _lot_ of Kryptonite." He held up a second finger. "Two, it might not just be green Kryptonite they have created there," Batman said.

Superman huffed out a breath and sat back down. He knew Batman was correct on both counts.

"Superman, you will monitor the mission," Batman said as he walked out of the room.

Everyone looked at Superman and gave him a reassuring smile as they followed the Dark Knight out of the room. Superman balled his fists in frustration. He wanted to help the team but could be a liability if he went, he left the room and made his way to the monitoring room.

Batman sat behind the pilot's seat of the Javelin as the rest pilled into the craft. The flight down was quiet, as everyone felt sorry for Superman not being able to help out on this mission. Batman landed the craft a few miles away from the location of the factory. It was in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of some very dense jungle, they all piled out.

"J'onn and I will going first to recon the area," Batman stated.

"I'm coming also!" Diana demanded.

Batman sighed deeply. "No," he said fatly.

Diana's eyes turned to slits of anger. "Why not?"

"Because J'onn and I are the stealthiest of the group," he told her. Diana looked at him in anger; she was a warrior and a hunter - she could be just as stealthy as he or J'onn and told him so. Batman smirked at her, Diana at that moment wanted to slap the smirk off his face.

"Diana, you are many things but subtle you are not," Batman said.

"I can be," she told him proudly.

Everyone turned their heads away from the arguing duo. Flash snickered as he thought about a stealthy Wonder Woman. Diana shot Flash a dirty look that stopped him from laughing pretty quickly.

"Give J'onn and I forty minutes. Then try to be sneaky," he said to her as he turned and looked at J'onn.

Diana placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed a little to much. Batman turned his head and gave her a batglare. John intervened the two heroes that were in a battle of wills.

"Batman is correct."

Diana shot him her royal princess glare, causing John to cringe inside but he held firm. "You're not dressed for a mission like this Diana," he finally got out.

Diana released Batman. Bruce was thankful that he now had rapid healing powers, because his shoulder felt like someone had ran over it with a dump truck - but it faded away quickly.

Diana turned and walked back up the ramp to the javelin. Bruce knew he would have to talk to Diana afterward, because the way she looked at him he was going to be in big trouble later.

It took Batman and J'onn fifteen minutes to travel the distance to the factory. Batman loved how the claws cleared his path quickly and effortlessly; J'onn just followed behind him. Once at the perimeter of the compound, Batman told the Martian telepathically to check out the north side of it while he would check out the south side. Batman entered the compound and made his way to the first building.

Once inside, his heightened senses helped as he checked out room to room. After checking out his tenth room and finding nothing at all except dust he contacted J'onn.

_Find anything?_ he asked him in his mind.

J'onn replied back. _Only the manufacturing area, they have a few pre-built robots here. It's like a ghost factory. I only sense a few personnel, _J'onn replied back.

Batman found an office that looked to it had been actually used and accessed the computer. He broke the encryption and access the files on it. 

He scanned the files, but there was nothing of importance. Then he heard an elevator running in the distance. He exited the room and made his way down the hall. A person got off it and made their way towards him. Batman hid in the shadows and watched the man walk by him and enter the room he just exited. Batman made his way towards the room and listened to the man type on the computer. He then heard him pick up the phone and dial out.

"Mr Trask... the gateway has been completed," the man said. "...in the morning? Great, I could use some rest... see you bright and early, sir," the man said as he hung up the phone.

Batman pulled away from the doorway and found a hiding spot. The man exited the room and made his way back towards the elevator. Once the elevator doors closed he contacted J'onn.

_Tell everyone to wait - we need to find this gateway before they come in all guns blazing,_ he told J'onn in his mind. J'onn replied he would and had done it. J'onn met up with Batman, and then phased down the elevator shalt as Batman took the elevator down.

Batman exited the elevator; he was in a hallway that lead down to another door at the end. Batman made his way there and was about to open then door when J'onn phased through it.

"It's on the other side. But..." J'onn didn't know how to describe it to Batman. He opened the door for him to see. Batman peered into the doorway and was shocked at what he saw.

The room was massive, it looked like it could hold a few 777 aircraft inside it and still have lots of room. Batman noticed the large ring that seemed to have a glow to it. Several personnel were around it, it looked like they were taking readings of it, scanning it with devices in their hands. There was a total of ten people in the whole massive room.

"J'onn, I will secure the room. Get the rest here," Batman said as he made his way into the room and behind some large crates. J'onn did as told, he shook his head at the behavior of Batman. He could have waited for the rest of the team to come and help, but he had to always prove himself.

By the time the rest showed up, Batman was at the console in front of the ring. Flash zipped back and forth in the room, then whistled to hear the echo. Batman gave him a glare, forcing Flash to behave.

"This is a portal to another universe," Batman said as he continued to type on the consoles keys. His jaw tightened up as he read the display. "It's the universe that Logan is from," he finished.

"If we step into the ring it will transport us to their universe?" Flash asked.

Batman shook his head."It's not fully powered yet," Batman said as John did a scan with his ring on the giant ring.

"Wow..." John said aloud. "It's giving off more readings then I've ever seen before. It's like a massive black hole," he finished saying as he moved backwards away from it.

Superman had been listening to the conversation said into everyone's ear pieces. "Give me ten minutes and I can be down there."

Batman touched his ear piece."Negative... It's made of Kryptonite," Batman said as he continued to read the display then growled out, "This is just one piece of the puzzle." He said as he pointed at the display.

Everyone crowded around the console to look at the display. Batman managed to tap into a security camera not from this location. What they saw made their hearts almost stop.

On the display was a warehouse that was housing hundreds of those robots, the camera froze on an every larger robots. It was twenty times larger then the rest, but the scary thing was that this robots was giving birth to the others.

Batman typed a few keys and the display turned off. He started typing rapidly as the ring started to glow more.

"What are you doing?" Diana asked him. Batman ignored her as he continued to type more until a flash from the ring nearly blinded them all.

"Going to get help." Batman said as everyones eyes returned to normal. Batman started to walk towards the ring when a hand grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Not without me this time, mister," Diana said.

Batman turned and gave her his patented batglare until Flash spoke up."What about us?" Flash asked him.

"You **all** stay here until I return," he growled out. Diana cocked her eyebrow at him and shook her head.

"Like I said, not this time," she told him matter of factly.

Batman exhaled deeply then said, "Fine."

Diana smiled triumphantly at him as they made there way to the portal. Batman stopped and turned his head back and said, "Remember, this is our only link. Keep it open and safe until we return," Batman told the rest.

"We will be here when you return," John Stewart told him with a grin from his shiny green eyes.

Batman and Diana entered the ring and vanished from sight.


	14. Meeting the XMen

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me!

Many thanks to Lady Isis, hope your feeling better soon! Also to DaisyJane for the help and inspiration.

Shout outs to: Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, Elpiza, HawkAngel (here is the chapter you have been waiting for ;)),StormyNightengale and OmniPharoah (One story at a time ;)). If I missed anyone sorry. :(

**Challenge** to you other writers. If you have a story or a idea for the character I sort of created (not really created, just change Dark Claw's history.) write about it, I don't own it. I would truly love to see more Bruce/Logan stories, Amalgam comics teased us all with there short run.

Another A/N: I've sort of based the X-Men on the 90's cartoon series. I'm not a comic book fan, more of a Cartoon fan of all the characters from Marvel and DC.

Enough lets get to the story, enjoy all!

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 14: Meeting the X-Men.**

Bruce and Diana walked through the ring and appeared instantly in the middle of a forest. It wasn't a tropical forest like the Amazon Rainforest - the evergreens and pine trees told them both it was in a northern location. The dark night was illuminated by a full moon. Diana looked around; all she saw was trees. Bruce pulled out a batarang and pressed a button on it, he then threw it into a nearby tree. The tiny red light blinking; the homing device would be used to find this location later.

"Where are we?" Diana asked him.

"We should be in New York state. Our current location is a few hundred miles north of New York City. Fly around the tree-line and see if you can spot a town," Batman told her.

Diana lifted up into the air and disappeared into the shroud of branches and leaves.

"_I see a small town east of our location, Batman_," Diana told him over his communicator.

Batman pulled out his PDA and started to scan for radio, television and wireless internet frequencies. He smiled when he was able to get each of them, though the signals were weak from his current location.

Diana touched down next to him as Bruce tried to locate a search engine on the limited internet he was getting. He sighed when he found one.

"Guess Google is going multi-dimensional," he said with a dry wit. He turned and saw a very upset princess next to him. Her fists clenched tightly as she rested them on her hips.

"What?" Bruce asked her.

Diana gave him the you-better-remember-why-I'm-mad-at-you-jackass look.

Bruce rolled his eyes under his cowl, causing Diana's lip to turn into a sneer. _Can she see through the lens? _he asked himself as he swallowed. He then heard a foot tapping and he stared down at her feet, one was tapping hard against the ground.

"I'm sorry, Diana, for insinuating you can't infiltrate a stronghold. But your bright costume..."

He saw the glare in her eyes intensify, and tried to rectify his mistake. _Oops, did I just call the Amazon Champion's armor a costume_? He tried to backpedal out of this one, but Diana's eyes softened a bit before he could.

"The Amazon Champion's armor is for battle, not sneaking around. I understand," Diana finally said.

Bruce mentally sighed in relief until Diana gripped him by his suit and pulled him very close to her. Her voice was low and very threatening. "But if you ever call it a costume again..." Diana trailed off, letting her evil smile say the rest. It almost reminded him of the Joker's smile.

"Perfectly understood," Bruce managed to squeak out.

"Good. So why are we here?"

Diana released him and raised her hands high in the air. Bruce, remembering why they transported here, returned to to his PDA and found the address he was searching for had returned its results. 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center was the location of Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. From the knowledge he shared with Logan, he knew that was the location Wolverine was to be found at.

"We are here to get Logan's help; I remember him dealing with similar robots when I got glimpses of his mind during the link," Bruce told Diana.

"Which way?" she asked him. Bruce's PDA finally found the right frequency to this world's GPS satellites and he smiled.

"We are West of its location. Twenty five minutes that way," he said, pointing. Diana wrapped her arms around his torso and the two lifted off.

"Are you not glad I came now?" Diana said sweetly into his ear.

Diana felt him shiver after she spoke close to his ear. She smiled at the thought of causing Batman to shiver. The two remained quiet as they flew above the tree tops at a manageable speed. The two spotted a highway in the distance. Once they past it they saw the extensive grounds of Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

Suddenly a blast of laser fire shot past them, it was a warning shot. Diana dove to the ground and landed, released Bruce as they touched down. The two suddenly found themselves surrounded by a group of people. A man with a red visor stepped forward.

"You are trespassing on private property," he told them.

But before Bruce or Diana could explain why they were here, a deeper and rougher voice spoke up. "Why are you here Bruce ? ...or would you prefer Batman?" Logan said as he stepped out from behind a tree.

Bruce relaxed his defensive posture as Logan came into view. Diana continued to stay on the defensive.

"Batman," Bruce stoically answered Logan. Logan gave him a nod. The man with the red visor spoke up.

"You know them?" he asked Logan.

Logan turned his attention from Bruce to Diana. "Him, yes. _Her_ only from his dreams, Scott," Logan said with a smile as he returned his gaze to Bruce.

Bruce's jaw tightened up from Logan spilling his inter most private thoughts. Diana's face turned from ready for action to shock at Logan's admission. She turned slightly towards her companion. She saw the tell tale sighs of his embarrassment. His cheeks held a very slight pinkish hue to them and his jaw was extremely taught.

"Can she be trusted?" Scott asked Logan.

"She can, but if she wanted to harm us, there isn't much we could do to slow her down. Diana could possibly take the Hulk and Thor on at the same time. And win," Logan told Scott, matter of fact.

The group that had surrounded them stiffened up at this information as they stared in awe at the tall beautiful woman.

Bruce, getting tired of wasting time, spoke up. "Have you ever heard of Sentinels?" Bruce asked Logan.

Logan's eyes widened. "Yeah! They are a menace," he growled.

"Well they are in our universe. I managed to retrieve the person's name from the device that brought us over. His name is Bolivar Trask, he brought over the Sentinel technology from your universe and has merged it with some of our technology," Bruce told him.

"Batman, I know how you think. Let's have Xavier see if your telling the truth before we continue this talk," Logan said as he motioned for Bruce and Diana to come with them.

Diana looked at Bruce and he nodded his head for them to follow Logan. He was totally correct; Bruce would never have believed this story without some kind of solid proof to back it up.

As they walked towards the mansion a tall dark haired man with glowing purple eyes kept pace next to Diana. "All the dames as beautiful as you are, back home?" he flirted in a thick cajun accent.

Diana cocked her head as she stared at the man. Logan turned his head without stopping his pace. "Marie will not be to happy when I tell her you're flirting again, Remy!" Logan's deep voice threatened Remy.

Gambit smiled but ignored Logan's warning. "Don't fret, miel, Remy LeBeau will treat you right," he said with a wink. Diana's mouth dropped open at his outrageously flirty banter; he was worse than Flash.

Diana heard Bruce's teeth grinding. "I'm already spoken for," she told him, before Bruce did something stupid.

Remy's eyes lit up with excitement of a challenge. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him," he said with a predatory smile on his lips.

Diana smiled back at him then pointed with her thumb at the man standing next to her.

"Don't know about that, you should ask him," Diana said as Remy drew his attention from Diana to Batman.

Batman was giving Gambit his most threatening Batglare ever - the one that made the Joker wet his pants - Gambit swallowed noisily as he looked at the man next to her.

Gambit turned away from the glare and mumbled something about, "Never mind."

Diana turned and winked at Bruce. _Is she enjoying my jealousy?_ Bruce asked himself.

It took them almost ten minutes to enter the large mansion and to be brought to Charles Xavier.

Charles was behind a large desk as Logan, Scott and Remy showed Bruce and Diana in. Charles had looked at both and smiled after confirming there stories in a matter of moments. Bruce allowed this intrusion into his mind when he felt the presence because he wanted this mission over with as quick as possible.

"They are who they say they are, and it's is very unsettling the news they bring," Charles said with a worried look to his eyes. "So you want us to come over and help?" he asked Bruce.

Batman nodded his head. "Yes, because I've seen from Logan's memories that you have dealt with them before, and succeeded."

"Let's go and assemble a group to help you then," Charles said as he wheeled himself out from behind the desk. Diana watched him and thought he was a very remarkable person. Charles gave Diana a smile in gratitude to her kind thoughts.

Scott followed right behind Charles as Remy and Logan took up the rear. Bruce and Diana were basically forced in the middle. They entered a large elevator and descended down into the bowels of the mansion. The group entered a metal-walled hallway and proceeded down it. The group stopped at round doorway with an large X on it. The door split open four ways and allowed them entrance to the large room. In the middle was a large table with many chairs around it.

Charles wheeled over to the front of it as the rest took a seat. Bruce sat next to Diana, taking in everything. He estimated they were between twenty to fifty feet below the mansion. The underground complex was built like a bomb shelter. He knew Diana could smash their way out if they had to.

Four people entered the room and took seats also. Once everyone was seated Logan spoke up and pointed.

"This is Anna Marie, she likes to be called Rogue." The brown haired woman with white streaks smiled and nodded her head at Bruce and Diana.

Logan continued the introduction. "The blue-faced demon is Kurt Wagner, we call him Nightcrawler."

Kurt looked on in horror at Logan calling him a demon. "I am no such thing," he said quietly in a heavy German accent as he made the symbol of the cross over his chest with his hand.

Logan chuckled. Scott and Charles gave Logan a disappointed look.

"He isn't," Logan coughed out in embarrassment.

"The beautiful lady with the white hair is Ororo Munroe, her alias is Storm," Logan said.

Diana and Storm shared a smile as Logan continued.

"The fiery redhead is Jean Grey," Logan said with a bit of passion in his voice. Bruce placed her face with the memories he shared with Logan. Bruce smirked as he spoke out.

"Yes, the memories of her were very...vivid," Bruce said in his deep baritone voice. Logan stiffened up and gave Bruce a harsh stare. Bruce simply smiled back at Logan as he sort of paid him back for what he said about Bruce's dreams concerning a certain Amazon Princess.

Logan tried his best to ignore Bruce as he continued.

"Everyone except Charles will be coming back with you both," Logan said as he retook his seat. Bruce spoke up.

"Where is Hank McCoy? I have some information for him. It's the plans to the Gateway, if it's destroyed on our side it might be prudent to have a backup one in place."

"Hank is on a mission, but if you have the plans I can give them to him," Charles said.

Bruce pulled out a portable USB drive for his utility belt and slid it across the table to Charles.

Charles looked at it and smiled. "It seems are universes are not so unalike," he said.

Bruce nodded his head in agreement, other then the different heroes their technology was almost the same.

Storm said, "Are we going now or later?"

Diana stared at the African beauty and said, "As soon as possible, we don't know how long the Gateway will stay open."

Scott stood up from his chair. "Let's go then, give us ten minutes to get our gear together." Everyone left the room expect Charles, Bruce and Diana.

Once the door was closed Charles spoke up. "I've read both of your minds. My X-men are good but one of them isn't what she seems. If Jean changes in anyway have J'onn send this command to her mind," Charles said to Bruce as he hid a mental command inside Bruce's mind. Bruce closed his eyes and felt a burning sensation in the back of his skull for a brief moment.

"You can't access it, Bruce, I'm sorry I had to do it to you. But your mind is better suited to hiding things than Diana's mind," Charles said with remorse in his voice.

Bruce growled in his mind, but accepted that he had to do this. "Fine, will it permanently be there?" he asked.

Charles shook his head. "No, once J'onn takes it from you it will be gone forever."

"Fine, let's get this over with," he barked out as he stood up from his chair about to leave the room. Diana placed a hand on his wrist and looked over at Charles.

"May we have a moment in private?" she asked him. Charles simply smiled and wheeled himself out of the room. Bruce stared down at Diana's hand touching him.

"What's wrong, Bruce?" Diana said as she stood up and looked into the cold lenses of his cowl.

Bruce tightened up at her inquiry. He didn't want to say that he hated Remy for flirting with her, or that he wanted nothing more then to punch his teeth out. Or that Charles invaded his mind and placing something that he didn't know about. Also, why was Charles almost fearful of Jean Grey changing? There were too many questions that he knew he would not get any answers to. He pulled his cowl off and looked into Diana's loving but concerned blue eyes.

"Nothing, Diana," he lied to her.

Diana knew he had but simply pulled him towards her and gave him a kiss on his lips. She rested her head on his forehead and exhaled deeply. "I know you like to bottle things up inside, Bruce, but I'm here for you. I don't expect you to tell me everything that is on your mind," she sighed. "Just remember I'm here." Diana pulled away and stared deeply into his eyes.

Bruce sighed out. "Will do, Princess, but we don't have the time for a heart to heart. Raincheck?" he asked her.

Diana rolled her eyes, as if she would be able to redeem it with his secretive nature. "Fine, but we _will_ talk about this later," she told him in her best commanding Royal Princess voice.

Bruce replaced his cowl and nodded his head as he left the room. Diana sighed and made a silent prayer to Hera that all would be fine.


	15. Return

A/N: Don't own the characters so don't sue me!

Many thanks to Lady Isis for the Beta and help. Also to my pal DaisyJane for her input and help.

Shout outs to Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, HawkAngel, iceequeenie263, JasonTKD, Elpiza, and StormyNightengal. If I missed anyone I'm sorry, like my writing style I'm a lazy SOB! Lol

Hope everyone enjoys this one!

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 15: Return.**

Once the Gateway powered up, long-range communications had terminated. The Gateway's power signature could be detected by the Watchtower's scanners. Clark couldn't contact the other Leaguers and had to sit and worry about them. Several hours had passed, and with no word at all from them.

Superman marched off to the hanger bay. He noticed one of the transport crafts missing but gave it no mind because he needed to know if his friends were okay. Once the Javelin he'd boarded was fully powered up, Clark took off and headed towards the Earth's surface. _Damn Bruce always telling me what to do,_ Clark thought to himself. _I'm not an amateur_.

Clark placed the Javelin in hover mode and opened up the back of the craft. He stared down and found the person he was looking for. Superman lowered down to his knees and reached down as he gripped the other person's hand. With a pull, Aquaman was pulled up into the craft. Arthur, King of the Seas greeted Superman.

"You said it was an emergency?" Arthur asked.

Clark walked back towards the cockpit and replied, "Yes, we are in need of your assistance. We have had two battles with giant robots, the first one was with only two and we were able to handle them. The next time was against five of them, we just managed to win that fight." Superman exhaled deeply as he closed the ramp to the craft and started moving it towards Argentina.

Arthur had taken the seat next to Superman and listened to him.

"Batman and the rest just found a factory that has several hundred of them," Superman said with a bit of worry in his voice.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You're saying these robots are tough enough in small groups to defeat - an army of that many will be nearly impossible to win against?" he asked with uncertainty.

Superman just nodded his head as he stared at the horizon.

"Don't you know any other heroes?" Arthur inquired of Superman.

Clark frowned. "Tried to contact them, but no one is answering my calls," he said as Arthur's hand clenched into a fist.

Superman and Aquaman rode in silence as the craft slowly approached the South American coast.

* * *

Diana was gripping Batman in one hand and Wolverine in the other as she flew ahead of the group just behind her. Gambit and Nightcrawler were being carried by Rogue, Storm was carrying Jean and Scott in a whirlwind. The group was following Diana because Batman was directing them towards the Gateway.

Bruce was looking at his PDA with his free hand as they traveled over the trees. He yelled up to Diana over the noise of the wind.

"DOWN THERE!"

Diana slowed and descended downwards. The group landed almost next to the quietly-flashing blinking light of the batarang. Bruce went over and took it from the tree and turned it off.

Scott spoke up. "So where is this portal?" he asked as he looked around.

Batman held up his PDA and found the invisible gateway. He pointed then walked forward, disappearing before he walked into a tree.

Diana turned to her companions and smiled as she followed him. Nightcrawler followed next and made the sign of the cross with his hand as he disappeared. Logan growled in annoyance then followed in with the rest right behind him. Logan found himself in a very large room with a glowing ring around him he continued to walk forward and saw Diana and Batman talking to a small group of others.

"J'onn, Charles left something for you in my mind. Get it out now!" Batman growled.

J'onn's eyes glowed, then his face held a look of complete terror for a moment but it vanished. Bruce was about to inquire about it when he saw the X-Men appear from the gateway.

The X-Men walked a few more paces until Batman spoke up.

"These are the people that are going to help us," Batman said then, started to point at each individual.

"This is Logan," Batman said as Logan nodded his head. "This is Scott." Scott mimicked Logan. "His name is Kurt." Kurt bowed to the group.

Bruce's deepened to a harsher tone. "Remy." Remy winked at Hawkgirl causing John Stewart to give Remy an icy glare.

"And Anna." Bruce said as Anna smiled at the group. Flash's smiled increased as he stared at the lovely woman. "Ororo." Flash's smiled got even bigger as he stared at the beautiful white haired lady. "And finally Jean," Bruce said.

Flash thought _every group most have to have a red head_, its got to be a rule or something.

Batman then introduced the Justice League. "You already know Diana but this is Hawkgirl," Bruce said as Hawkgirl raised her mace and nodded her head, "the green man is a Martian named J'onn," J'onn gave them a very gentlemanly nod, "this is John Stewart," John nodded his head also, "And lastly Flash."

Batman sounded like Flash was a bit of an afterthought. Flash zipped over to the group and shook and introduced himself to each and everyone - expect Logan, who gave him a dirty look.

"Logan said you had another member," Scott said.

Batman nodded in agreement to his statement. "Yes, but he can't be here at the moment," Batman said. He wasn't going to tell them that Kryptonite was a weakness to his friend on the off chance that Logan hadn't already done so.

The two groups walked towards each other and introduced themselves a little more personally and to talk about the best way to take the robots out.

* * *

Superman tracked the homing beacon from the other Javelin and landed next to it. Arthur and he stepped off and heard a roar in the distance as it got closer. The missing transport craft landed next to the two Javelins.

The large ramp came down and exited a group of Superheroes came out. There was The Atom, Atom Smasher, Aztek, Black Canary, Booster Gold, B'wana Beast, Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate, Dove and Hawk, Elongated Man, Fire, Green Arrow, Huntress, Ice, Red Tornado, Shining Knight, StarGirl, Steel, Vixen and a few Superman hadn't seen before. Nightwing come out last.

Superman knew most of them expect a few shadier looking characters. Nightwing noticed Superman as he was handing out devices to the other heroes.

Nightwing strolled over towards Superman and Aquaman.

"Sorry we could not get here sooner, but I had to pick up a few people first," Nightwing said with a bit of worry in his voice.

Clark just blinked at him in confusion. "What?" was all he could say.

Nightwing's eyes turned to slits. "Damn him!" Nightwing cursed out. "He didn't tell you about the emergency distress call he sent out four hours ago?" he asked Superman.

Clark folded his arms across his chest. "When does he ever tell me anything?" he said, annoyed.

Nightwing's frown almost matched Superman's. "Well we are here to assist with the situation," Nightwing said, feeling defeated at being left out of the loop again. _I wonder why I even respond to his calls for help any more,_ he mused to himself.

Superman tapped his ear and spoke out. "Batman," he almost growled.

* * *

"The joints are their weakest points," Logan said as the group was talking about the robots. Batman had walked over and powered down the Gateway. His earpiece picked up a voice.

"Batman," a very annoyed sounding Superman spoke.

Bruce tapped his ear and responded. "What?"

"We are here," was all Clark said.

"Good, we will be coming up in a few minutes; the factory is close by at another site," Batman said as he turned his attention towards the group in front of him.

"They're here," he called out to them.

Everyone turned and looked at Batman in confusion. "What?" John asked.

Batman turned on his heels and started towards the door. Diana gave the X-Men a _please forgive his behavior_ smile, then followed Batman to the elevator. Everyone shook their heads or their shoulders shrugged and followed the Dark Knight. Logan tightened up his fist, wanting to punch Bruce for his cryptic behavior.

Scott gave Logan a smirk. "What?" Logan said in irritation.

"Remember... you were just like that just a while ago," Scott said with satisfaction in his voice.

Everyone piled into the elevator and ascended to ground level. When they exited the building everyone except Bruce, Jean and J'onn looked on in awe.

Superman was standing in front of at least twenty other superheroes. Batman continued to walk towards the large group. He made a beeline to Nightwing and held out his hand.

Dick gave him a questioning look. "Need seven more communicators," Bruce said succinctly. Nightwing rolled his eyes and reached into a small bang on his utility belt. Batman turned once he was handed them and walked over to the X-Men.

"Here, place these in your ears. We use them to communicate, all you have to do is tap the device when it's in your ear and it will open a channel," Batman said as he handed everyone their own.

Logan gripped Bruce's wrist as Bruce was about to leave him.

"What is this, bub?!" Logan barked as he pointed at the large group behind Batman. Batman stared back at him then noticed the rest of the X-Men staring at him awaiting an answer.

"You already know these Sentinels are bigger and stronger then your world's ones. 14 against several hundred of them isn't going to cut it. I just called in reserves," Batman said stoically to Logan.

Logan released his hold on Bruce and nodded his head. "That is all I wanted to know, damn you're annoying when you don't state crap," Logan told him.

Bruce stood still for a moment then, turned to the large group behind him. "There is no time to introduce everyone, there is a dire situation that needs our attention right away. A factory..." Batman pointed at the mountain behind Superman and the rest of the superheroes. "That is producing robots like the ones that attacked Metropolis and San Antonio, Texas. There are currently over two hundred such robots in there. And-" Batman was about to continue when the mountain face exploded. Batman tightened his jaw.

Dozens of robots came flying out of the hole in the mountain.

"And they know we are here."

* * *

A/N: Don't know how long it will take me to write the next chapter, hopefully I get inspired and have it done quick. :)


	16. Broken Battle

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue.

Many thanks to Lady Isis for the Beta, input and help. Thanks to DaisyJane for pointing out my mistakes also for writing Troia a super awesome story. ;)

Shout outs to: Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, EroSlackerMicha, HawkAngel, StormyNightengal, iceequeenie263. If I missed anyone my bad.

Had a grand vision of an awesome battle scene. But I bite off more then I could chew. Was going to plot out each and every superheroes fight and defeat but decided I'm way to lazy to do that. Also who wants to hear how B'wana Beast got stepped on. (lol)

So just like a real war there will be untold stories and unseen action. I hope I do not disappoint anyone. If I have sorry. :(

Enjoy all.

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 16: Broken Battle**

At least thirty Sentinels flew towards the large group of heroes. Batman tapped his com-link and started to bark orders.

"Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Fire, Green Lantern, HawkGirl, J'onn, Red Tornado, Rogue, StarGirl, Storm, Superman, and Wonder Woman intercept and slow those Sentinels," he commanded.

"Booster Gold, and Jean Grey. I want a shield to protect this location," he continued as Logan came up to him and poked him in the chest with a finger.

"Listen up, bub! Who the hell gave you the right to start barking orders?" Logan stared directly into the lenses of his cowl.

"We don't have time for your ego, Logan, I've worked with each person here except your team. I know their strengths and weaknesses, and now I know your team's strengths and weaknesses as well from our link," Batman stated as he stared Logan down.

Logan growled in defeat and turned away from Bruce.

Bruce shook his head and returned to commanding the battle. "Atom Smasher, Aztek, Cyclops, Dove, Elongate Man, Flash, Hawk, Ice, Nightcrawler, Shining Knight, Steel, Vixen and Wolverine - you're ground offense. Move forward," Batman said.

Everyone did as told and moved into action.

Batman then turned to Dick. "Nightwing, take B'wana Beast, Black Canary, Gambit and Huntress. Take out the unfinished robots in the northern builds of the compound." Nightwing nodded, but Bruce grabbed him before he could move.

"Did you bring everything I told you to?" Bruce asked him.

Nightwing scoffed at his mentor. "Yeah, I'm not stupid," he said with irritation.

Bruce continued to hold onto Dick. "I know..." Bruce looked at Dick then said, "Be careful," as he released Nightwing.

Dick stood there then smiled as he nodded. He turned to his group. "Lets move it people," he said as he ran towards the compound, with his team hot on his tail.

Bruce turned his attention back towards the battle. The flyers had reached and slowed the advancing Sentinels.

Storm was calling on all her power: massive thunder clouds covered the skies as lighting hit their targets. The lighting did little to the robots except slow them down. Captain Atom, Fire, Green Lantern, Red Tornado, Stargirl and Superman were using their projectile attacks to hit the robots.

Captain Marvel, Rogue and Diana were hovering in the air waiting for the Sentinels to come closer. The ground forces were a hundred meters in front of the shield, waiting for the Sentinels to touch ground.

Batman mentally sighed; this battle would not be easy. They were outnumbered, and from the looks of it they were out-gunned as well. He pulled out his PDA and looked at his last resort if they couldn't stop them. He had the Batwing circling a few kilometers away; he had it loaded with two experimental nuclear warheads. Each were equal to one hundred megatons of TNT. The bombs would level this area and stop the Sentinels if they lost the battle.

He returned his PDA to its pouch and scanned the horizon. More Sentinels came pouring out of the mountain. Their air defenses were not going to hold them off much longer.

But he got a communication from Question. "Our friend has been taken by his benefactor," he said cryptically.

"We'll find him later. I'm busy. OUT," Batman said as he turned off the channel.

Bruce opened up anther channel then said, "Everyone in the air, land near the ground forces. Hopefully the Sentinels will land as well."

Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Fire, Green Lantern, HawkGirl, J'onn, Red Tornado, Rogue, StarGirl, Storm, Superman, and Wonder Woman all landed near the ground forces. The Sentinels did the same. Over one hundred and fifty of them lined up and started to march forward.

"Spread out," Batman ordered. The flyers helped out the none-flyers to spread out their forces. The ground shook as the massive Sentinels moved forward. Trees looked like tall grass against their sheer size.

"Flash, Nightcrawler - you're both responsible for bringing the wounded to the protective shield," Batman called. Flash and Nightcrawler acknowledged his command.

"Wait for it, people," Batman said as the Sentinels slowly got closer.

"Attack their joints, NOW!" Batman yelled into the com-link.

The main battle had started. Superman flew at the closest Sentinel and ripped off its arm. J'onn, Captain Marvel, Rogue, and Wonder Woman followed Superman's lead and did the same, then used their massive arms as clubs.

Cyclops, Storm, Fire, Ice, Captain Atom and Stargirl opened fire with there projectile powers, but were holding the advancing robots at bay for a few moments.

The Sentinels returned fire, and the battle was starting to get chaotic now. Heroes flew, ran or dived. Some advanced while others tried to avoid the awesome lasers of the Sentinels.

Wolverine was in the thick of things. He'd managed to cut his way into one of the Sentinels and started to attack it from the inside. When he hit the power core, he was already in a berserker rage. When the Sentinel went down, he was still inside.

Nightwing had returned with his team. "It's done, Batman," Nightwing said as he looked in awe at the battle in front of him.

"Good, use it," Batman said as Nightwing pulled out Mr. Freeze's ice-gun. He ran past the shield and started to fire at the Sentinels' feet, freezing them on the spot. But it did no good - the metal was too thick and strong. It didn't weaken it, and Nightwing was forced to duck and hide.

Ollie then said, "What can we do?"

"Pray," was all Batman said, as the Sentinels pushed the others back towards the shield. Flash ran up with a wounded Aztek and helped him to the ground. Dr Fate came over and looked him over.

"He will survive," Flash nodded and dashed back into the fray. Dr. Fate returned his attention to hold up his part of the shield.

For every Sentinel taken down, two more advanced. The shield started to get hit as the lasers bounced off it. Batman saw Superman get knocked into the tree growth; Diana flew to help him. She reappeared, carrying him back towards the shield.

She landed next to Batman. Superman was wheezing, and his skin was pale and sweaty. Diana placed him gently on the ground as Batman checked him over. Several large chucks of Kryptonite that had penetrated his skin.

Batman pulled out a batarang and started to remove them.

"Get back in there, Diana, I will look after him," Batman said as Diana nodded and flew back into the heated battle.

Once the pieces had been removed, Bruce noticed Clark still didn't look healthy. Bruce knew what was wrong - he had Kryptonite poisoning. He pulled out a capsule from his utility belt and forced it into Clark's mouth. It was a drug that would purge the Kryptonite in his system.

"Swallow it, damn it," Bruce growled out.

Clark did as told them weakly smiled at Bruce. "Stop telling me what to do all the time."

Batman smiled briefly, seeing his friend was doing better. He let Clark lie there as he returned his attention back to the battle.

The fight had lasted so far ten minutes and they had only taken out twelve Sentinels. Batman saw Storm fall to the ground. He noticed Jean, still holding up her part of the shield start to move forward.

"Don't!" Batman yelled.

Jean turned her head and looked at him. "No! I will not let my friend die because you're a heartless bastard!" she spat as she dropped her part of the shield and ran into the battle to save her friend.

Batman growled to himself. _I'm not heartless, just being logical_.

Their defense was weaker now once Jean stopped projecting her part of the shield. Suddenly he saw Diana get blasted by a laser, and her limp body fell to the ground. The logical part of his brain told him not to go and help, but the emotional part was screaming at him for allowing her to get injured. He looked around for anyone that could help, but everyone was too busy fighting to help her.

The logical part lost the fight.

Batman ran forward and tapped his earpiece. "Diana?!" he yelled out as he continued to move past the shield. When he got no response he called out again. "Nightwing, get back to the shield! You're in command!" He turned off the communicator, not wanting Dick or anyone else to bother him at this moment.

He ran past several advancing Sentinels large feet as he moved to the location of his fallen love. He could just pick up her scent. He found her just as a Sentinel was about to step on her. He shot of his grappling hook as it attached to the robot that was about to step on Diana. He swung and just gripped her by her dirty, knotted hair. He pulled her away from the foot, just as it came crashing down.

He looked down at her and noticed her left side was blistered, slightly bloody and very red all over. He lifted her up into his arms and started to head back towards the shield. He ran into Jean floating Ororo in front of her.

"I don't know which way to go," Jean said almost desperately. The thick jungle and the smoke from the battle would make it hard for anyone without enhanced senses.

"Follow me," he said as he ran past her.

Jean followed the man dressed all in black as they head back. They had gotten free of the forest when he saw Superman fly above him towards the Sentinels. He smiled at the blue-red blur.

Jean and Batman made it back behind the shield and placed their comrades down. Bruce took off his glove and ran his hand along the undamaged part of Diana's face then to her neck to check her pulse. He silently prayed she would survive. He then felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he looked into the green eyes of Jean.

"Sorry, I called you heartless," she said sympathetically. Bruce nodded his head. "But you're still a bastard for the way you act," Jean said as she started to examine Diana.

"How is Storm?" he asked her as he let Diana go from his grasp once he felt her strong pulse.

"Just unconscious; she's fine," Jean said as she continued to examine Diana. She turned her head and gave Bruce a kind smile. "She'll also be fine. Everything looks good except the burn," she said as she stood up.

"Good, get back to your job," Batman said as kindly as he could.

Jean smirked and returned to protecting the injured with her shield. Batman replaced his glove and marched over to Nightwing.

"Status?" he asked him as he stopped next to his son.

"Bad. Superman isn't at a hundred percent yet, but I couldn't stop him going back anyway. We have several critically injured people, our big guns are down to only Superman, Captain Marvel, and GL," he sighed.

Bruce looked around the protective shield area and saw several of his colleagues laying on the ground. The battle was not going well for them. Batman rubbed the pouch with the PDA in it. He knew they still had a chance so he would keep this until the very end. Atom Smasher came flying over head, his large body just missing Batman and Nightwing. Nightwing ran over to him and checked his vitals as Atom Smasher shrank to a smaller size.

"He is fine, but looks like he has broken ribs." Nightwing said as he got Atom Smasher into a better lying position. He ran back over to Batman.

---

Bolivar Trask was tied to a chair bond and gagged. A single light source peered down on him. Then a threatening voice boomed out, "So you think you can outsmart me."

Trask tried to talk, but the gag wouldn't let any of his words out.

"No one makes a fool out of me," the voice said as footsteps could be heard in the darkness. The steps circled around Trask's bound body. The voice laughed loudly.

"I allowed you to think you were duping me. But you see I allowed the Justice League to find your factory. Right now they are about to die. Once that is done I will take control of your Sentinel's and then the world."

The well dressed man walked into the light. He bent over and stared Trask directly into his eyes. "But you won't be around for that," he assured as he stood straight and walked away from the man.

Several other larger figures came into the light. Trask's eyes flashed with fear as they moved towards him.


	17. Bright Light

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me!

Many thanks to Lady Isis for the beta and input, I own you a double order of fish and chips now. ;) And as always many thanks to DaisyJane for her encouragement and help, super happy to see Troia updated! Love that story. I might have to do my own Dick and Donna story in the future.

Shout outs: Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, EroSlackerMicha, HawkAngel, StormyNightengal, iceequeenie263, JasonTKD and ShadowofDarkness (reason I posted in the Justice League category was that its mostly a Batman story. I tried cross referencing it with the X-Men but the darn thing kept on being set in the X-Men with JL secondary. Don't want you X-Men fans flaming me for not having enough Wolverine it in. heheheh). If I missed anyone sorry. :(

Read and enjoy all. Reviews are always welcomed. (Yeah shameless plug for reviews I know I'm bad!)

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 17: Bright Light.**

Logan laid there, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs. It was dark, except for the sparks from electronic components that were on fire. He coughed as the smoke was thick. Logan finally remembered where he was - deep inside one of those gigantic Sentinels. He pulled himself up and extended his claws, then cut a hole to extract himself out. He looked around the battlefield.

He knew once he looked around that it was a hopeless cause. Over one hundred Sentinels were ahead of him, marching forward. Logan could see only a few heroes continuing to fight the metal beasts. Suddenly a red blur zipped past him, then returned just as fast. When it stopped, Logan noticed the man's costume was ripped and tattered. He also seemed to have a limp.

"You okay?" the man asked him. Logan stared at the concerned man then nodded his head. He then remembered what they called this man. _Flash_.

"I'm fine. Where are the rest?" Logan spat out some blood from his mouth while Flash's shoulders slumped.

"Behind the shield. The Sentinels almost have it surrounded," he said, a defeated tone in his voice. Logan gripped Flash by the shoulders and shook him.

"It's not over yet, bub. Let's kick some ass," Logan growled out and pushed past Flash.

He ran towards the closest Sentinel and extracted his claws, then attacked its massive foot. He dung his claws into the metal and crawled up it. Once past the ankle, he cut into the metal of the calf and entered the machine.

---

Superman had never felt this tired or weak before. Grunting as he lifting one of the massive arm of a disabled Sentinel, he flew towards a group of them and rammed it into the middle one's chest. He smiled as the Sentinel rocked, then its generator exploded, causing the robots to stop working. The huge robot fell backwards, but Superman's smile vanished as he was hit by at least ten laser blasts.

Captain Marvel was not having much success either; he was being knocked around like a pinball. If it wasn't a laser blast then it was a massive arm hitting him. But he would not give up, the child in him wouldn't stop until they had won. But the wisdom of Solomon told him that this battle was unwinnable. The Sentinels were just too powerful, and there weren't enough of the superheroes left.

Green Lantern was sweating as he created a huge hammer with his ring and was hitting a group of Sentinels with it. John then created a huge clamp and picked one of the Sentinels up with it. He then spun around and threw it at its comrades. _Just like bowling, _John mused to himself, but the three Sentinels he'd knocked down started to get back up.

John was about to do it again when several lasers began peppering him. He had to concentrate hard to hold his personal shield that wrapped around his body. But the laser blasts increased, and started to weaken his shield. Another twenty blasts or more sent the Green Lantern tumbling to the ground. Nightcrawler snatched him out of the air before he hit the ground and teleported him back behind the shield.

Kurt had been silently praying since the start of this battle that they would defeat this evil. But as one by one of the heroes he was fighting with fell to the Sentinels, he knew it was going to be impossible to defeat them.

He managed to catch the one with the glowing green eyes before he hit the ground. He brought him back behind the shield and looked down at the unconscious man. His body was beaten and nearly broken. The man had burn marks all over his body. Kurt said a silent prayer for the brave man, then returned to the front line in search of any other wounded hero.

Rogue was still putting up a fight against the Sentinels. She smashed her fist into the giant's eye, cracking the large lens. But suddenly she was grabbed by a massive hand; she tried to break the hold but its power was nothing she had felt before. It continued to tighten around her body forcing what little air left in her lungs to escape. The blackness of unconsciousness took over.

Flash saw the woman with the white streaks in her hair fall to the ground. He ran over as quickly as he could, but his ankle was sprained at the _least,_ he thought. He picked her up and stared at her unresponsive face. He ran back to the shield and laid her down gently.

He was about to brush her hair away when a female voice shouted, "Don't touch her!"

He turned and looked at a sweaty and tired looking Jean Grey. She knelt down next to her friend and said. "If you touch her with your exposed hands she will drain away your powers."

Flash looked at the missing gloves of his suit and frowned. _She can't be touched at all?_ He thought to himself. _What a terrible existence_.

The battle was nearing its end. Superman and Captain Marvel were the only flying heroes on the front line. Logan was still unaccounted for. Batman sighed as he looked out at the approaching Sentinels.

They were at the front of the shield and were starting to pound on it with their massive metal hands. Booster Gold, Dr. Fate and Jean Grey's combined shields were holding up _for now_. Bruce could see the effect of holding such large metal beasts at bay was taking its toil on them.

Batman touched his earpeice and spoke quietly to Dr. Fate. "How much longer can you hold out?" he asked the mystical man.

Dr. Fate was feeling the strain to hold the shield up growing harder by the second. Those emotionless machines were forcing him to use every ounce of strength he had to hold them at bay.

"Not long," he answered shortly. He breathed deeply as he forced himself to concentrate harder.

Logan finally reached the power source of the gigantic machine and cut its main power cord. The effect was felt right away as the machine started to lose power. Not wanting to be trapped or knocked unconscious again, he made his way towards the thick metal exterior shell of the beast and cut a hole. Once the piece fell away he saw the shield glowing brightly. Lucky for him the Sentinel was falling backwards away from the shield. He jumped out of the machine.

The fall would hurt - but he had jumped and landed from higher heights. Landing hard he growled out at the instant pain. Rotating his neck, he felt instantly better. He looked to the left and right, and saw the Sentinels had almost surrounded the protective shield of his fellow comrades.

Bruce watched as the last Sentinel enclosed the shield. They stopped moving for a moment, then a voice could be heard. It was loud and menacing - but human.

"Give up. We have you surrounded - resistance is futile," the voice said from all around them.

Superman was still flying around, and Captain Marvel was next to him as they watched the Sentinels stop their assault on the shield then heard the voice.

Everyone stood still as they heard the command from the Sentinels. Bruce sighed and looked around. They had lost. His jaw tightened as he thought about what he had to do now. He looked over at the three holding the shield. Their eyes held such determination in them.

He tapped his earpeice once again and asked Dr. Fate one question. "Can you teleport us out of here?"

He could see his shoulders slump as he shook his head. "No. My powers are depleted. If you give me five minutes I could," he replied.

Bruce knew they didn't have five minutes. Maybe one if they were lucky. He turned to Nightwing and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Dick..." he sighed. "You have made me proud each and every day that I was around you. I'm sorry I waited until now to say it," Bruce said quietly.

Dick looked at his mentor and adoptive-father. He placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled brightly at him. "I know, Bruce," Dick said without fear of letting Bruce's secret identity out. He knew the end was near. "I love you too."

Bruce actually smiled at Dick, then released his hold on his shoulder and tapped his earpeice once again. "Superman..." He sighed - he was about to lie to his close friend as he clicked on a button on his utility belt, activating a homing signal fifty kilometers away. "There is a signal I just activated."

Superman listened. "I hear it."

Bruce smiled. "Good. Get to it and retrieve what's there. It's something I've been working on," Bruce said. "Take Marvel with you."

Bruce closed his eyes not wanting to look up at the sight of Superman flying away.

"On it. Be back in a minute," Superman said as he nodded at Captain Marvel to follow him. Once Bruce turned, he heard the sonic boom of Superman flying away. He walked over to a still unconscious Diana and knelt down next to her. He pulled out his PDA and started to key in the sequence to bring the Batwing to their location.

He laid next to her and took her hand as he finished the sequence. Once done, Bruce threw the device away and wrapped his arm around her. Bruce whispered into her ear.

"I hope the Elysian Fields have a spot for me too, Diana. I love you. What I've done is to keep the world safe," he said as he kissed her dirty red cheek.

Diana's eyes opened up slightly as she stared back at him. "I love you too," she said weakly.

Jean Grey could sense something was about to happen. She felt a great relief come from one source she had never felt it come from. _The Batman_.

Jean peered into his mind for a moment and felt two emotions. Love...and regret. Love for the woman he was holding, and regret for not being able to win this ill-fated battle.

Superman with Captain Marvel at his side found the location. He landed and found the small device that was emitting the sound. He picked it up and looked at it. He stared at it in confusion at what it could do to help them. Then a tiny voice could be heard from a small speaker on it.

"Clark." He heard the voice then give a deep sigh. "If you're listening to this, we've lost. Don't be angry that I sent you away while I died. The world need Superman more then it needs a unstable mere human like myself."

Clark crushed the device and growled out, "No." He and Captain Marvel flew up and raced back to their friends.

* * *

The Batwing came screaming to the location of the PDA's homing beacon, the nuclear bombs armed and counting down. The plane was at full speed as it came down towards the battle-weary heroes.

* * *

Superman was flying as fast as he could and saw the Batwing with two large bombs strapped to its undercarriage come flying down at the shield. Superman's eyes opened wide as a flash of light enveloped the area.

He was forced to close them against its terrible brilliance.


	18. Fire

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many thanks to Lady Isis for her help and beta of this chapter. Also many thanks to DaisyJane for her input, time and encouragement.

Shout outs time! Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, EroSlackerMicha, HawkAngel, StormyNightengal, iceequeenie263, JasonTKD, Elpiza, Kyer, EroSlackerMicha, shanghanji, (Yes Bruce still has Logan's powers ;) and ShadowofDarkness. If I missed anyone sorry. :(

The long awaited conclusion! Hehehe. Got to say I loved Chapter 17's cliffhanger ending. Think it was the best. Just wish I could end most of my chapters like that, but cliffhanger do get a little tired after a while.

ShadowofDarkness you should read more BM/WW ships, they are a very interesting couple. Just a few authors to check out are Lady Isis, DaisyJane, Icha. (Yea I'm bias! Lol) alittlesummerwine, and AngelQueen just to name a few. Enough Brown nosing.

Enjoy all.

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 18: Fire.**

Superman slowly opened his eyes, and it took him a few moments to see clearly. The Man of Steel's mouth hung open as he stared at the sight in front of him.

Logan had seen the black blur hit the shield, then a flash of light that caused the retinas of his eyes to be slightly damaged. His rapid healing power fixed them almost instantly. The flash of light caused him to close his eyes instinctively, but when he opened them, what he saw sent a shiver of fear down his spine.

Logan growled out, "God, _no_."

* * *

Batman held Diana in his embrace and even with his head turned away and shielded from the light he was still slightly blinded by it. He felt a flash of heat but it did not burn him or Diana to a crisp. He turned away from the battered face of Diana and looked. The sight in front of him was something he never would have imagined.

* * *

Jean Grey saw the plane come rapidly towards the shield. Something in her knew the end was at hand - but that something wouldn't allow it to happen. A gateway inside her mind opened wide. For one very brief moment in time, Jean sensed everything around her. She knew she should not have let go of her control, but couldn't stop it from happening. Just before the plane hit, the ultimate power hidden within her released.

Jean transformed into the fiery Phoenix. With a mere thought the black plane froze as if plucked from time. She sent the bombs to a pocket dimension with no time, to stay for all eternity, locked and ready to explode, but to never do so. She stared at the metal giants and with another thought they stopped, then started to crumble to dust. The fires of the Phoenix surrounded her, it sent tingles of pleasure along her skin. She rose into the air and stared down at the pitiful people below her.

She felt their pain and fear pour off them, soaking in it, feeding off it.

Logan walked slowly towards the hovering Jean Grey and looked up at the fiery creature that floated there.

"Jean, don't let it take you again," he yelled.

Jean finally noticed Logan below her, looking at him as if he was a bug. "Don't tell us what to do," she hissed as she slowly descended down towards him. Once face to face she peered into his eyes as if looking at his very soul. A smirk appeared across her lips as she stared at him. "You care deeply for this one don't you, Logan?" it taunted.

Logan's fists balled as he stared into the eyes of Jean. Her compassion and kind soul was gone in them. What was left was nothingness.

"Jean, fight it!" Logan yelled at her.

Jean cock an eyebrow at him. "Why would I? I just saved your pitiful lives," Jean said as she raised her hands again. "I did in a blink of the eye what you could not do with a force of your so-called heroes," she said arrogantly.

Scott limped over and stared at the woman he loved. "Jean, let's stop this together," he pleaded.

Jean turned to Scott and gave him a seductive smile. She placed her hand on his face and touched his visor, and with a quick pull they were gone. Scott's eyelids instinctively closed.

Jean moved her head towards his ear and whispered, "Don't fear, Scott. Let me see your beautiful eyes for once."

Scott slowly opened them and stared into her cold emotionless green eyes. For the first time since he fell in love with her, he saw nothing of his loved one in them. He took back the visor and replaced it. "My beloved is gone, only Phoenix is left," he spit out.

Jean's lip curled up into a sneer as she back handed Scott.

Superman had watched the exchange and landed next to the three. When Jean backhanded Scott Superman stepped in. "That's enough," he said as he gripped Jean's wrist.

Jean turned and looked at the man holding her arm. "Kal-El, the last living Kryptonian. Release me before I make the Kryptonian people truly extinct," she growled out.

Superman held on to her wrist, not letting go. A flash of flame caused him to release her. He looked at his hand and it was blistered and bloody.

Jean then said to him, "Let's see how truly strong you really are."

Clark stopped looking at his hand and stared at Jean.

She smiled as she cocked her fist, Superman prepared himself for a fight. Jean threw a punch at him, and Superman gripped her fist. Jean smiled evilly as she pushed him back. Superman had never felt such raw power before, but he didn't have time to think it over before Jean simply backhanded him. His hand lost its grip on hers, and once released Jean took a hold of his wrist.

"You will _never _touch me again!" Jean yelled as she slapped his face back and forth. The mighty blows caused Superman's face to swell and redden. After speaking the last word she released Superman's limp arm, and he dropped to the ground unconscious.

Jean stretched out like a cat and declared, "I think this universe will be a fun playground," she said with a smile.

The smile vanished, and she blasted Batman as he tried to sneak up on her. Batman tumbled in the air before he hit the ground. "Being sneaky, Brucie?" she said as she turned her attention to him.

Batman pulled himself up to his feet and stared at her. "Trying," he said stoically back.

Jean grinned at him. "Well I'm not like the rest of these pathetic wannabe heroes. I sense all. I'm a god!" she hissed out as she raised her hand to strike at him again.

Diana had watched Bruce get struck and mustered as much strength as she could to move. When Jean's hands rose again to hit Bruce, something in Diana snapped. The Amazon warrior came out as she forgot about pain. With the speed of Hermes, Diana managed to land a thunderous blow to Jean's face, but the pain of it caused her to dropped to the ground holding her hand.

Jean looked down at the injured and beaten Amazon and laughed, "Was that your best? You're pathetic, just like your so-called gods, as are your people. I will enjoy playing with them all," Jean tauntingly said to Diana.

Logan, seeing his only chance to attack her, did so. He truly didn't want to injure her, but knew the power of Phoenix could not be stopped unless Jean was dead. He hit Jean on the back with adamantium claws. They simply bounced off her skin, leaving no damage or even a scratch.

She turned and looked at him with hate-filled eyes. "I thought you loved me, Jamesy," she taunted him. Jean raised her hand, and Logan's body was lifted forcibly into the air. His metal skeleton turned to jello as Phoenix twisted and turned them around with her mind. Logan screamed out in pain as Jean toyed with him.

Captain Marvel, not knowing about Phoenix stepped in to stop her hurting Logan. He grabbed her in a bear hug and yelled out, "Shazam!" The lighting bolt came from the clear sky and hit her.

"Is that all you can do, little boy?" she growled out. Billy didn't know what else to do. He tightened his grip on her and yelled _Shazam_ again. The bolt hit her once again and Jean started to laugh out loud.

"The same gods that grant Diana her powers grant you yours," she said as she easily broke free of his bear hug. Jean turned and looked at the frightened man standing in front of her. Jean smirked then Captain Marvel turned into Billy Batson. She winked then he returned to Captain Marvel. Jean was controlling his power to transform.

"Say goodnight, Gracie!" Jean mockingly said as she slapped Captain Marvel across the face. The blow sent him crashing into the ground. His body embedded in the earth, the unconscious Captian Marvel reverted back to Billy Batson.

Jean turned her gaze back to the few that were still standing. "I'm bored," she said melodramatically.

Jean then stumbled, and for the first time her eyes looked frightened as she turned and saw the green Martian standing there. His orange eyes were glowing brightly.

J'onn had awoken to a sense of power he had never known was possible. He slowly stood up on his shaking legs and watched the sight in front of him. The psychic powers this being possessed were unimaginable. He accessed the information Charles had placed in Bruce's mind and sent it out at Jean.

Jean tried to fight off the telepathic attack but J'onn had started it before she could defend against it. The images J'onn sent her caused Phoenix's hold on Jean to weaken. Jean felt herself take control again.

Jean and J'onn were in a tug of war inside her own mind.

Jean and J'onn stood holding hands next to each other as the large fire bird faced them. "Don't be stupid Jean, we are all," it said to her.

Jean tightened her grip on J'onn's hand and shook her head no. "This is my body and mind, I am the one in control here," she yelled up at the fire-bird.

The flames weakened as Jean gained more confidence. J'onn released the information Charles gave him once again. The fire-bird weakened to the point of being their size now.

Jean stared at it with pure hatred. "You have hurt my loved ones and you have hurt innocent people. NO MORE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

J'onn could barely hold on; Jean's anger was almost too much for the Martian to keep his link with her. The fire-bird was surrounded by metal bars and was caged up once again. Jean exhaled deeply and turned to face J'onn.

"Thank you," Jean said to him. J'onn actually smiled at her in gratitude.

Once J'onn released their link Jean dropped to the ground, unconscious. Everyone let out a deep sigh of relief that the Phoenix was gone. Scott dropped to his knees and pulled her up into his lap. He held onto her as he gently rocked back and forth, smoothing her hair.

Bruce helped Diana up to her feet.

"You okay?" he asked her in concern.

Diana weakly nodded her head. "I just need some rest," she said as she cradled her swollen hand.

Batman tapped his earpiece. "Nightwing, Green Arrow and Black Canary. Retrieve the planes and let's get the wounded out of here."

Superman slowly got himself up after regaining consciousness, his face felt like he had been beaten with a bat kryptonite. Once on his feet he remembered what happened, lucky the sun was high and bright his wounds would heal quickly. He helped with the loading of the wounded onto the transport planes. Once that was done he made his way over to Batman and the X-Men.

Scott was holding Jean in his arms. Remy was helping Anna as she limped along, and Ororo was being carried by Kurt.

"Time to go home," Logan said.

Superman walked up to Scott and stared down at Jean, still out-cold in the X-Man's arms. "Well she be alright?"

Scott gave him a gentle smile. "Yes." He looked at the bruised face of Superman and asked, "Are you going to be alright?"

Superman smiled at him and nodded his head. "Yes, but your girlfriend sure can slap well," he joked.

Before Scott could reply Logan growled out, "Let's go..." He stared , narrow-eyed, at Scott and Superman. "This place has too many smiles and giggles," he spit out as he walked back towards the compound.

Batman smirked as he turned and looked at Superman. Superman rolled his eyes as they made their way back to the Gateway.

* * *

Trask couldn't move as the two thugs approached him. There broken tooth smiles made him wish he never heard or knew the name Lex Luthor before.

"You take the face, I want the body," the left one said as he pulled out a pair of brass knuckles. The other one just grunted as he gripped the lead pipe in his meaty hands.

A metal ball bounce against the concrete floor caused the two thugs to look at it as it rolled to a spot next to them. The ball then hissed as it released a gas from it. One whiff of the invisible gas caused the large men to sway. A few more deep breaths and they hit the ground.

Trask looked around franticly, and a man with no face came into the light and untied him from the chair. He helped Trask leave the large abandoned warehouse into his awaiting car. Once he felt safe enough Trask asked a question.

"Who are you?"

The man started up the car and put it into drive. "Now that is the Question," he said before he hammered his foot to the gas.

* * *

Batman activated the Gateway and watched as one by one the X-Men walked or were carried through the portal.

Logan stood still and stared at Bruce for a moment. He pointed at Bruce. "Don't call us - we'll call you!" he threatened as he turned and walked through the portal. He disappeared an instant later.

Bruce turned off the device and looked at Clark. Clark smiled and said, "Nice fella that Logan. Don't you think, Bruce?" he teased.

Bruce, too tired to respond, turned and started to walk away.

"Let's go," he said.

Clark sighed. "I told you not to give me orders," he said as he caught up to Bruce.

"Next time your dying of kryptonite poisoning I'll remember that," Bruce replied.

Clark placed a hand on his shoulder to stop Bruce from walking. He looked nervous for a moment. "Thanks for the medicine..." His eyes then turned harsh. "But if you ever send me off so you can do a suicide mission again, I will be very upset," he told him.

_Damn boy scout trying to intimidate me,_ Bruce thought to himself, _has he forgotten I have metal claws that can cut him now_?

"Everything worked out just fine; let's go," Bruce said as Clark nodded in agreement.

Clark walked next to the Dark Knight and was deep in thought about what could have happened had Phoenix not been stopped. What she did to him - them - was scary. Sure, they were tired and weak, but to simply slap him around like a ragdoll actually gave him a shiver of fear. Clark had faced some pretty powerful supervillains, but none had ever just slapped him and hurt him that badly. Phoenix was on a totally different level - what if she was she a god? He didn't know for sure - and never wanted to find out.


	19. Clean up

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many thanks to Lady Isis for the beta and input. Also many thanks to DaisyJane for her input and help also. You both are real angels!

Shout outs to: Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, EroSlackerMicha, HawkAngel, StormyNightengal, iceequeenie263, JasonTKD, Elpiza, Kyer, EroSlackerMicha, shanghanji, Dylogger, Nataku's Wrath and ShadowofDarkness. If I missed anyone sorry. :(

Almost done with this story, one more chapter to go possible a second one if I can't fit it all in. Have to say I'm surprised with the response I got for this story. But then again Batman and Wolverine kick ass!

Enjoy all.

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 19: Clean up.**

Bruce and Clark entered the elevator to return to the surface. Clark pressed the ground level button as the doors closed.

Batman tapped his earpiece. "J'onn. Status."

"Everyone is loaded onto the ships. We are just waiting for Superman and yourself to return."

"Negative. Return to the Watchtower with the ships and get medical help to whoever needs it. We have some unfinished business still left here. Is Captain Marvel still with you?" he asked.

"Standing right beside me," J'onn replied.

"Tell him to meet us at the compound," Batman said as he disconnected the link.

Clark looked at him in confusion. "What unfinished business? Jean already reduced the Kryptonite in the Sentinels to dust."

Batman looked at him like he was a five year old. "You sure you don't have a concussion?" he asked him. "There is still the factory the Sentinels came pouring out of inside the mountain. We need to make sure it's decommissioned permanently," Bruce said.

Clark's eyes brightened up, as he had totally forgotten about it.

They reached ground level and walked out of the complex. Captain Marvel stood at attention as they walked up to him.

"How are you feeling?" Superman asked the young man kindly.

Marvel smiled brightly at him and said,

"Fine sir," he replied standing tall, then asked, "How are you feeling?" He gestured at the slightly swollen area on Superman's face.

Superman touched his face. It was still a little sore, but the sunlight was making it feel and look a lot better.

"I'll survive," he smiled.

"Enough chatting. We have a mission to complete," Batman said, glaring at Superman. Superman sighed, then lifted Bruce and himself into the air. Captain Marvel followed right behind the two.

"Clark, Captain Marvel and I are the only ones to enter the complex," Batman said in a whisper that only he could hear.

"What? Why..." Superman began, then remembered that the machines used Kryptonite to power them. There could be a lot of it left inside. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll just stand guard."

Superman touched down before the gigantic opening in the side of the mountain. He used his x-ray vision and saw shards of Kryptonite all over the place, but his jaw tightened when he saw a huge chunk deep in the factory. It was the size of a large car.

"Any movement in there?" Batman asked him.

Clark shook his head no. "But there is a lot of Kryptonite in there," he exhaled.

Batman nodded and started to walk towards the opening with a hand gesture to the youngest hero. Captain Marvel, not used to Batman's non-verbal commands, looked over at Superman for help.

Superman smiled and said, "Better keep up with him. He doesn't like a dawdler," he said with a smile. Marvel grinned, then ran up next to Batman and kept pace with him.

They peered inside the factory when they entered the large opening. Batman noticed a Sentinel unlike any of the others that they had fought. The sheer size of it dwarfed them. It also had a large opening in its chest. Without turning his eyes from it he spoke to Captain Marvel.

"Your job is to locate any personnel and evacuate them. I will overload the reactor," he said as he moved over to the still standing metal walkway near the large, rough opening. Captain Marvel flew in right behind.

Batman silently moved along the catwalk as Marvel zipped off in search of any living personnel. He continued to stare at the massive robot as he walked. Captain Marvel contacted him. "Nothing living in here, Batman."

Batman was about to reply back when a loud, booming voice called out, forcing him to look at the over-sized Sentinel once again.

"You may have won the battle, but the war is far from over!" it said as its eyes glowed brightly. It raised up its arm - even that, the size of a ocean liner. It pointed a massive finger at Batman. A fresh new Sentinel emerged from its chest opening. Captain Marvel stopped and floated near Batman.

"You take out the new Sentinel, I will deal with the other," Batman growled out as he fired off his grappling hook and took off swinging.

Captain Marvel's fists tightened as he flew towards the new Sentinel. He searched for something large enough to smash the Sentinel with. Not seeing anything big enough he continued to fly directly at the Sentinel and slammed into its right arm joint. The arm ripped off and hit the ground.

Marvel flew down to pick it up, but was blasted by a laser from the Sentinel. Then he was nearly flattened against the concrete floor from the single working arm.

Batman swung and glided towards the mother Sentinel. He was planning on entering the large hole in its chest where the Sentinel had just come out. A blast from the mother Sentinel stopped him from moving forward. He fell to the ground and rolled onto his back, looking at where the bat symbol uses to be. He could see his metal breast bone. He lay there for a moment, watching as the muscle and skin regrew. He pulled himself up and moved into a dark corner.

"You can not hide from me," the mother Sentinel boomed out. As the crate next to Batman exploded, he swiftly moved along the darkened corners of the factory. "Give up, human," it commanded as it scanned for Batman.

Captain Marvel grunted as he lifted the hand off of him. He again was airborne as he circled the Sentinel, and gave it a massive punch to the head, stunning it. He then flew down and picked up the dislocated arm. Grunting under its sheer weight, he lifted it up and once again flew around the Sentinel as it tried to blast him with its lasers.

Swinging the arm he knocked the Sentinel off balance to the ground. Once it fell he rammed the arm through its chest. Marvel looked down at it as its eyes stopped glowing. Then its chest exploded.

As the mother Sentinel saw its latest baby die, it focused on Captain Marvel. Its eyes glowed red as it fired off a blast at him. Captain Marvel took the hit directly. It sent him flying backwards into a wall.

Batman, seeing the mother Sentinel distracted, slipped into the opening. He pulled out the EMF detector and found the location of the large magnetic signature of its energy core. He made his way towards it. Laser blasts started to pepper him as he moved around in the massive body in seach. _Great - it has internal defenses,_ Batman thought. Lucky for him his rapid healing allowed him to keep moving forward without slowing down.

Not to say it didn't hurt - the lasers were cutting and burning him as he moved towards its energy core. His Batsuit was slowly turned to shreds by the lasers. He smiled once he found the bus-sized energy core.

"No!" the mother Sentinel screamed as Batman pulled out a batarang. It beeped as he threw it at the core. It lodged in the metal as Batman turned and ran. The timer on it would explode the batarang in thirty seconds.

He turned a corner and ran into a human wall of muscle, nearly knocking him over. Captain Marvel was standing there as Batman regained his balance.

"Out now!" Batman said. Marvel grabbed Batman and flew out of the mother Sentinel and towards the opening in the side of the mountain. They exited just in time - the batarang exploded, causing a chain reaction. Once the mother Sentinel's power core blew up, it leveled the mountain top. Millions of tons of rock came down on the factory, crushing everything inside it.

Captain Marvel landed and released Batman. Superman landed next to the two.

"It's done," Batman said as he looked at his suit. The only thing holding his pants up was his nearly destroyed utility belt. Lucky for him his cowl was still intact.

"Is the Javelin you came in still here?" Batman asked Superman.

Superman nodded.

"Let's go then," Batman ordered as Superman picked him up and flew to the Javelin, Captain Marvel in tow.

"Can you drop me off at home?" Captain Marvel said, then his voice deepened. "I mean the town I protect," he finished, puffing out his chest.

Superman gave him a weird look but nodded. Billy Batson sighed to himself, he thought he sounded like a little kid just then, but apparently Batman and Superman only thought he was trying to hide his secret identity.

"I need to be dropped off at the Cave," Batman said to Superman.

Clark smirked. "You wouldn't need to be if you didn't always crash the Batwing," he said cheekily, earning himself a batglare.

* * *

Clark landed the Javelin in the cave, Batman exited the craft with Superman on his tail. They had just dropped off Captain Marvel.

Bruce took off his cowl and threw it in the incinerator, along with the tattered remains of his batsuit. He walked over to the changing area and put on a new suit. He exited as Clark stood at the massive computer.

Batman, sans the cowl in his hand, sat down and typed a few commands into the computer. A hydraulic lift system could be heard rumbling somewhere in the cave. A platform lifted as new Batwing came up to replace the old one.

Clark raised an eyebrow. _Must be nice to have multi-million dollar planes to spare_...

"It's a spare of a spare," Bruce said as he typed a few more commands on the massive console. The screen lit up as a new video window popped on the view screen. J'onn face was in the center of it.

"How is Diana?" Bruce asked right away.

"She is fine, and resting in her room," J'onn said stoically.

Bruce let out a silent breath in relief. "Any serious problems with the others?"

"No, mostly broken bones and a few concussions. But they will survive," he said. "A man calling himself the Question just docked in a Batwing. He says he has a prisoner for us."

"We'll be up as soon as we can. Secure the prisoner in a holding cell," Bruce said as he shut off the link. He turned to Clark and folded his hands together. "Question retrieved the man responsible for creating the Sentinels on my behalf. We should have a meeting to discuss what to do with him," Bruce said. He watched the Man of Steel carefully to see what he would say.

"Sounds fine to me, but he is responsible for almost thirty deaths in Metropolis and San Antonio," Clark said sternly.

Bruce nodded in agreement. "What of his accomplice?" he asked him.

Clark stared at him harshly. "Luthor? We can't let him get away with this."

Bruce unfolded his hands and leaned back into his chair. "We have to. Question and I haven't found any evidence that he knew anything," Bruce said.

Clark's eyes turned red in anger. "Are you sure?" he asked through clinched teeth. Bruce nodded. "We still need to do _something_ to him."

Bruce smiled as he stood up. "We will, soon," he said, placing his cowl over his head.

"Race you up to the Watchtower," Clark said finally with a smile. Bruce smirked and nodded, allowing Clark to have his childish moment if it distracted him from Luthor for a moment.

Clark grinned and then used his superspeed to get to the Javelin. Batman shook his head as he walked determinedly to the Batwing.


	20. Questions and Ideals

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many Thanks to Lady Isis for the beta and input! Also many thanks to DaisyJane for putting up with my wacko stories and the help and input.

Shout outs to: Hepburn, KittyBatman, Icha, EroSlackerMicha, HawkAngel, StormyNightengal, iceequeenie263, JasonTKD, Elpiza, Kyer, EroSlackerMicha, shanghanji, Dylogger, Nataku's Wrath and ShadowofDarkness. If I missed anyone sorry. :(

This wraps up everything I do believe, one more chapter to go a Epilogue of sorts. Thinking of having The Joker meet the new Batman AKA Dark Claw!

Read and enjoy all. :)

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter XX: Questions and Ideals**

Clark beat Bruce up to the Watchtower.

Bruce had thought about using his override commands to stop the Javelin from starting up so he could get a head start, but decided against it because of how Clark reacted to Luthor's involvement in the Sentinels.

Clark stood at the doorway that exited the hanger bay. His smug smile told Bruce he should have disabled the Javelin. They walked down the walkway to the monitor womb. J'onn was talking to Question as the two entered the room.

"Question," Batman said stoically as they stopped in front of the two.

"Batman... Superman," Question greeted them both.

Superman gave the faceless man a uneasy nod. He was weird in Clark's books. Always talking about a conspiracies left right and center. But he did have some respect for the man - he did always seem to find information when it was hard to come by for the rest of them. Except Bruce of course - sometimes he just seemed to magic up evidence.

"Was it difficult to get Bolivar Trask?" Superman said.

Question placed his hands in his blue trench coat. "Not when you look for the right clues," he answered him cryptically.

Superman sighed in frustration; that man was almost as annoying as Bruce could be.

"You can go, Question," Batman dismissed him briskly.

Question tilted his head. "Got it first?" he asked Batman as he held out his hand.

Batman pulled out a USB drive from one of his pouches and handed it over to Question. He placed it and his hand back into his pocket. He then turned and walked out of the room whistling.

Superman looked at Batman suspiciously. "It's just images from a Wayne Enterprise Satellite."

"Of?" Superman asked him.

"Of a military base in Nevada. J'onn, we need to have a team meeting. Tell the rest to meet us in the conference room," Batman said as he turned on his heels to make his way to the room.

J'onn spoke out to Batman as he was leaving. "Would you retrieve Diana for me?" he asked Batman.

He stopped abruptly and turned his head to look at the green martian. Batman stared at him for a moment and nearly growled out. _Damn telepath knows._ He nodded and exited the room.

"Why would he have to go and get her?" Superman asked in confusion.

J'onn went over to a console to contact the others. He said, "Because I asked him to."

Clark shook his head at all the mystery of late. He hated to be left out of the loop; his reporter senses where shouting out warnings to him to investigate more - but the farm boy in him said to leave sleeping dogs where they were. He'd prefer not to get metaphorically bitten by Bruce or Diana.

* * *

Batman knocked on Diana's door. When no answer came he used his override command and the door quietly slid open.

He walked in to the room and saw a mass on the bed. Not wanting to disorientate her with turning on the lights he switched his night vision mode in the cowl on. He walked over and stared down at her face. It looked at hell of a lot better now, he thought. He bent to his knees and gently pushed a few hairs from her face. Diana lightly stirred from his touch, and her eyes fluttered open as she saw the twin blue lens of Batman's cowl.

"Feeling better?" Bruce's voice came out instead of the rougher, stoic voice of Batman.

Diana stretched and smiled up at him. "Yes... now that you're here," she said with a twinkle in her eye.

Bruce smiled down at her. "I've called a meeting, J'onn suggested I come and get you. I think he knows," Bruce said.

Diana pulled herself into a sitting position and absorbed this information. Diana knew he would be the first to know about the difference in her and Bruce's relationship. She nodded. "Hard to keep secrets from a telepath," she reasoned.

Bruce had to agree with her on that. "Get dressed and come to the conference room," her told her, then leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Next time I'm getting slapped around by a demigod..." he stared her directly in the eyes as his jaw softened, "just remember I can take it now," he finished with a smirk.

Diana rolled her eyes. "You remember that as well then," she said as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Duly noted," he said as he got to his feet. "You coming?" he asked once again.

"Yes, once I'm dressed," she said, waiting for him to leave.

Bruce stood there with a lecherous smile on his face. Diana gave him her best royal princesses glare, causing him to chuckle. "See you there," he said as he turned on his heels and left the room.

* * *

Everyone except Diana was waiting in the conference room, and she finally entered with a seductive sway to her hips. Bruce groined to himself as she sat down. He would have to investigate how she had became suddenly so good at the seduction game. Forcing those thoughts out of his head, he spearheaded the meeting.

"We have Bolivar Trask in our custody," Batman said as he began the meeting.

"We should drop him off to the Americans to deal with," J'onn stated. "It is the destruction of American cities he is responsible for."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

John Stewart spoke up. "What about the information of technology he possesses, about the Sentinels?"

"I have retrieved most of it," Batman said.

John shook his head. "Not the stuff in his head."

"Yeah, whats stopping him from selling it to someone else?" Flash jumped in.

"He won't," Batman stated flatly.

"You can't guarantee that, Batman," Hawkgirl spoke up.

Batman gave her a glare, Hawkgirl simply stared back at him.

"I can..." Batman was about to say, but Superman spoke up.

"Hawkgirl is correct, how can you guarantee he will not sell them? I say we have J'onn lock that information away in his mind," Superman stated.

Batman jumped on him right away. "We bring people to justice _only!_" He slammed his hand hard on the table. "We don't pass sentence or punishment," Batman stared harshly at Superman.

"I think we should," Diana said.

Batman's head whipped around as he stared at her in shock.

"Those Sentinels are a menace," Diana said.

J'onn spoke up. "I will not condone it," he said.

Batman relaxed his posture.

"Then let's vote on it," Flash said.

Batman didn't like this - he knew they would vote to do it. "I'm not voting," he said as he walked out of the room as everyone stared at him leaving.

Batman stood outside the room until J'onn came out walking like a robot. He knew they would vote for it, he spoke up.

"Don't do it, J'onn," Batman almost pleaded with him.

J'onn stopped and wouldn't look at Batman. "I have to. It was 5-1 to go for it," he said then he looked directly at Batman. "I will proceed in one hour's time," he said as he walked away.

Batman knew why J'onn told him that. He moved purposely towards the secure holding cell area of the Watchtower. He overrode the locking system and saw Bolivar sitting on his bed behind the humming of the electric forcefield. He overrode that system and walked into the room.

"Get up - you're coming with me," he growled at the man. Bolivar stood up. Batman handcuffed him - but just as he was about to escort him out, a tall figure stood at the doorway.

Batman's jaw tightened up as he stared at the Amazon Princess. "Out of the way, Diana," he said stoically.

Diana raised an eyebrow at his demand. "I'm here to help you take him back," she said.

"Why? You voted to lock his mind up," Batman said to her, and he felt Bolivar's arm tense.

"Both sides have their valid points. Sending him back is the only way to avoid making J'onn do it," Diana said.

Batman nodded as he shoved Bolivar forward. "Then let's send him back. Make sure the coast is clear, we need to get to the hanger bay," he said as Diana nodded and left the room. Diana would run interference if someone was in their way.

They made it to the hanger bay unimpeded - Batman had a feeling J'onn was helping them too. They didn't run into anyone during the trip. Batman loaded Bolivar into the back seat of the Batwing and stood in front of Diana.

"I will need your assistance. Take a Javelin and follow," he said as he turned and got into the cockpit of the aircraft.

Bolivar didn't say one word during his escape or during the flight down. Diana followed down in the Javelin knowing this was the correct thing to do. If they tampered with Bolivar's mind it would cause both J'onn and Bruce to distrust them. Trust was worth more than justice sometimes. Without trust the team would not - could not - function correctly.

Batman landed the plane next to the abandoned compound and pulled Bolivar with him. Diana landed her craft next to his and was by his side as they descended down into the bowls of the complex. Batman typed on the console as he powered up the Gateway.

Once it was fully powered he turned to Diana and said, "I will return him, I've set the coordinates so we should appear on the grounds of Xavier's School. I want you to keep an eye on the Gateway just in case."

Diana placed her hand on her hip and replied. "Sure... but don't keep me waiting."

Batman gave her a smirk. "Roger. Dinner when I return?"

Diana smiled back at him then said, "Out at a restaurant? Or your place?" She gave him a choice knowing he would pick the safest one.

"My place."

Diana nodded her head as Bruce shoved Bolivar towards the large ring of the Gateway. They appeared outside of the massive grounds of the school. Batman pulled out a homing batarang and threw it into the ground. He grabbed Bolivar by the scruff of the neck and marched him towards the front doors of the massive house.

Batman knocked on the door and waited. A young woman answered it.

"Yes?" she answered the door with a question.

"I'm here to see either Logan or Charles," he told her as he continued to hold onto Bolivar.

"May I ask who is calling?"

"Batman," he stoically said. The woman motioned for them to enter the foyer. Batman shoved Bolivar in and stood silently waiting as the woman nearly ran off.

A few minutes later a wheelchair turned the corner with Scott in tow.

"Batman, glad to see you. I see you brought back Bolivar Trask to us," Charles said.

"You deal with him since you already read my mind about why I'm here," he said as he pushed Bolivar to Scott. Scott grabbed the man.

Bolivar turned and smirked at Batman.

"Your a fool. In your universe I had no friends, but here..." his smile grew, "here I have a _lot_ of powerful friends," he said with a wink at Batman.

"Good to know, but if I ever see you in my universe again..." Batman's smile matched Bolivar's, "I will allow the Martian to make you think you're a dog for the rest of your life," he told the man. Bolivar's smile weakened after hearing this.

"I have to go. Don't tell me what you're going to do to him," Batman said as he opened the door to make his exit.

"Rest assured, we will deal with him, Batman," Scott said as the man closed the door.

He exited the gateway as Diana stood next to the console. He walked over and started to type more commands on the console. Diana watched him silently. He turned to her and said, "Let's go. We have about three minutes until the power core explodes."

Diana's eyes widened. "But what if we need..."

Batman shook his head, cutting off Diana's argument of keeping it. They exited the complex and stood at the perimeter watching it. A minute later they saw the buildings engulfed in flames, then the huge sound blast hit them. They stood silent until there earpieces beeped.

"Where is he, Batman?" Clark demanded.

Batman tapped his ear then said, "Back home."

"You had no right to do that. He is still responsible for thirty deaths."

"And you didn't have the right to tamper with his mind either," Batman retorted.

The tension was thick even through the audio link. Neither would give up on their ideals.

Diana spoke up then to ease the tension. "It's over and done with now."

Clark disconnected the communication link in frustration.

"It's not over Diana," Bruce said. "Clark was right but he was also wrong. Bolivar should have stood trial for his crimes, but locking parts of his mind up was also wrong." He sighed.

"It's _over_," Diana said in her best demanding princess voice.

Batman nodded his head and turned to make his way back to the Batwing. "I will follow you back up, and then transport you down to the manor," he said over his shoulder.

Diana smiled back at him as she caught up to his rapid walking pace.


	21. Epilogue

A/N: Don't own these characters so don't sue me.

Many thanks to Lady Isis for the beta and for putting up with my annoying emails every 20 minutes. Lol. Also many thanks to DaisyJane for her insight and help also. :)

I have to say I'm pleased to see Dark Claw finally come to an end. It has been a pleasure and a pain at the same time to write. I would like to thank everyone that read and reviewed Dark Claw.

Enjoy!

**Dark Claw**

**Chapter 21: Epilogue**

Bruce and Diana were enjoying their dinner date, Alfred had returned with their desserts when he motioned with his head towards the over-sized windows. Bruce sighed out as he placed his napkin down and stood up from this chair.

"I have business to attend to, Princess," Bruce said with frustration. Diana looked out the window and saw the large bat signal high in the sky. She turned to her dinner companion and smiled brightly at him.

"Care for me to stay until you return?" she patiently asked him.

Bruce thought it over for a brief moment. He slowly shook his head as he stared at her. Jim never turned it on unless it was important and he could very well be gone all night. "No, Diana, I think it would be best if we call it a night. Don't know how long I'll be."

Diana stood up but Bruce motioned with his hand for her to return to her seat. "Stay and have dessert, Alfred would be upset if you didn't have some," Bruce said as he walked towards her. He bent down and kissed her forehead. As he stood up, Diana nodded her head in agreement.

"Alfred can keep me company while I eat," Diana said with a wink towards him. Alfred's normally stoic face brightened slightly. Bruce walked off towards the entrance of the Batcave.

"Try not to steal her away from me, Alfred," Bruce said over his shoulder.

"I will try, Master Bruce," the Englishman replied lightly.

Diana laughed. "At least you'd stay for the entire dinner," she said sarcastically.

Bruce stopped and turned around with pained expression on his face. "You're not the only one allowed to make jokes, Bruce," Diana raised her eyebrow in challenge to him.

Bruce smirked as he turned on his heels and left the two.

---

Batman slipped quietly up to the roof of GCPD, looking around for Jim Gordan. Harvey Bullock stood next to the massive light, Batman walked over to the overweight man.

"Listen, freak, your damn freak friend the Joker has Commissioner Gordan," Harvey cursed.

"How do you know?" Batman asked him.

"This." Bullock whipped out a letter sided card. It was a large Joker playing card but had red letters written on it. At first glance it looked like blood, but it was a written with red lipstick.

The writing said _Oversea Gordan's fishy Death._ The only building Batman could think of that had a view of the sea was the old Tempt Fishery - now called Tempt Storage, where they used to butcher whales one hundred years ago. The building was a warehouse now that was fifteen stories tall.

"If Jim dies, freak... I'm holding you personally responsible!" Harvey spat out as he turned and shut off the bat signal. Harvey rubbed his forehead, _Let the damn freaks kill_ _each other,_ he thought.

Batman launched himself off of GCPD and used his grapple hook to swing down to the awaiting Batmobile. He drove over to Tempt Storage and exited his vehicle. He fired off his grappling hook and rapidly ascended towards the roof.

Something didn't feel right as he landed on the rooftop. He noticed a rope tied down to an exposed pipe that its end was going over the edge. Batman slowly walked over to the edge and saw Gordan tied to the rope dangling from it.

He gripped the rope and started to pulled the unconscious body up. Once the body was close enough to him he gripped the rope that was wrapped around the body and pulled it up.

It was a fake - but there was a note attached to the body. It read: **Surprise Batsy!**

Batman just managed to turn and see the Joker almost on top of him. He released the dummy and turned. He was too slow, and the Joker sliced at him with a large knife. The blade cut his utility belt, it fell from his waist. Batman grabbed the Joker's wrist. They struggled against each other. He forced the Joker's arm up and then smashed it down hard on his knee, knocking the knife from his hand.

"Not a very elaborate plan, Joker," Batman said roughly to Joker as he got a better hold of him.

"It was and still is," Joker sang out as he winked at the Dark Knight.

Batman then felt a presence near his back. When he turned his head, a large wooden mallet was coming at his face. It dazed him when it connected, giving the Joker the advantage.

The Joker and Harley Quinn then started to kick and hit him. It forced Batman to back up, but being so close to the edge of the building there was nowhere else to go. He slipped and fell backwards.

"Have a nice fall!" the Joker yelled out with a laugh.

Batman instinctively went for his grappling hook, but found nothing there. His utility belt was laying down on the roof. _Oh this is going to hurt!_

The Joker and Harley watched from above as Batman hit the ground, hard. He laid there not moving. They raced down the stairs and stopped on a floor that had Jim Gordan bound to a chair. They ran by him smiling.

"Ding dong the Batsy is dead," Joker sang out as he ran past Gordon.

Jim watched the manic pair run by and felt his blood run cold. _Have they finally succeed?_ he thought. Jim prayed they had not.

The Joker and Harley burst out the front doors of the old building and ran in search of the spot Batman had fallen to his death.

"Where's his body?" the Joker cried out as they ran around the building.

"Don't know, puddin," Harley replied back as they searched for him.

The Joker stopped - so did Harley.

"It's impossible. His body should be right here," the Joker said as he tapped his chin with his finger. Harley scratched her head as she thought about it also.

The Joker's eyes widened as he saw the large bloodstain on the dark ground. He pointed at the spot but no words would come out. Harley stared at the spot to, and her face contorted into fear.

"Where is he, Mister J?" Harley asked with a bit of fear and confusion in her voice.

The Joker simply grabbed two handfuls of hair on his head and pulled. "He has to be here. Look for a blood trail!" he said as he jumped around.

Just as Harley was about to, the Joker stopped jumping around and let out a kind of choking noise. Harley turned and saw the Batman lift her puddin' up by the neck.

The Joker's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. _He should be dead,_ kept repeating, over and over in his head. Batman threw him to the ground and kicked him in the ribs, forcing Joker to roll over onto his stomach. Batman then grabbed both of his arms and tied his wrists together.

Harley stood there watching as if it wasn't real. She had seen the Batman die - but he wasn't dead. She remained frozen in fear, and Batman was able to grab her also without a fight.

After hitting the ground he had blacked out for a few moments. When he pulled himself back up he felt great pain but it slowly subsided. Once back on his feet he ran to the Batmobile and retrieved his spare utility belt. When he came back Joker and Harley were running around looking for his dead body.

Batman secured them in the batmobile and went in search of Gordan. He found him on the ninth floor, tied and gaged. After releasing him, Jim smiled and hugged him.

Batman stood completely still, raising a questioning eyebrow. "What was that for?"

"I thought they finally got you. They acted like they had," Jim said.

Batman smirked. "What they saw and what happened were two totally different events," he said as they left the rundown building.

The GCPD came picked up the Joker and Harley. They were both so confused at what had happened they didn't taunt or act stupid. Jim was looked over by some paramedics as Batman left the scene, hoping Diana was still at the manor.

**Three months later**

Batman was driving the Batmobile back to the Cave after a night of patrolling. In the past three months since his merger with Logan, his crime-fighting lifestyle had gotten so much easier. Sure he still had to look for clues and figure out how or why a person was committing a crime - but now he didn't have to worry about dying in some dank, dark alleyway from some punk with a lucky bullet.

Diana and his relationship with her was still being kept a secret from the rest of the League, which was harder now that they had expanded it to over fifty members.

Their battle against the Sentinels showed them that seven wasn't enough to protect the entire Earth. The battle also showed that they could work in a larger group than the seven of them.

Diana had been pestering him for the past month or so to allow her to come on a patrol with him, to see what Gotham was like through his eyes. He finally relented and would allow her to come _only_ if she would wear a disguise and not show off her super powers. Alfred, with his normal precognitive abilities, had created a Batwoman-type costume for Diana.

That had been last night, and he actually enjoyed her company. At first he thought she would distract him but she was professional all during the patrol. But when they returned to the manor, it was a totally different story. He sighed as he parked the Batmobile in the cave. Last night's lovemaking was different, more physical then it had even been before. Was it because of the patrol or something else?

He shook his head and hopped out of the batmobile. He inhaled deeply and frowned as he picked up a scent he hadn't smelled in a while.

Batman stealthily moved around the cave and saw a puff of smoke come from his occupied computer chair.

"What are you doing here?" Batman growled out.

The chair swung around and faced him. "We need your help, bub," Logan said with a serious expression on his face.

The End.

**A/N: Betcha didn't see that coming! Do not know if I will do a sequel at this time, if you have a good idea why Logan came back I would love to hear it. I truly don't know what I would do for a sequel at this time. Well I do have a few ideas, but they are sort of lame. So PM me or leave a review stating what would be a good idea for Logan needing Bruce's help for.**


End file.
